Mpohor NDC deputy constituency secretary busted for registering minors
The Western Regional Police Command have arrested Bernard Afful, the Mpohor deputy constituency secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), for registering persons who are under 18 in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
Afful, 59, was arrested together with Rojer Miller, 33, proprietor of Voice of Christ Preparatory School in Mpohor, who assisted the NDC deputy constituency secretary in the illegal act.
It is reported that the police in Mpohor received intelligence that the proprietor of Voice of Christ Preparatory School had gone to register his son aged 16, and his colleagues in the ongoing voter registration exercise in Mpohor.
The proprietor, after registering the minors, retained their voter ID cards.
The police, acting on the intelligence, went to the school and arrested suspects Rojer Miller and Bernard Afful.
Upon searching the proprietor’s room, the police found five voter ID cards bearing the names of Gildolf Andoh, Christabel Obeng Damoah, Christiana Assan, Spend Love Nana Boah, and Edward Ntiakoh, students of the Voice of Christ Preparatory School.
Afful and Miller, upon interrogation, admitted to having sent the five students to the registration centre to be registered.
Suspects Rojer Miller and Bernard Afful were detained to assist investigations while frantic efforts were being made to invite the five students and obtain their birth certificates to authenticate the accuracy of their ages.
The two have since been arraigned before the court for prosecution.
This situation comes two days after the police arrested three individuals for engaging in a fight and temporarily disrupting the ongoing limited voter registration exercise at the Tepa Electoral Commission office in the Ashanti Region.
“The three suspects, Abass Abukari, George Vinor, and Abdul Karim, are currently in police custody assisting with the investigation,” the law enforcement agency said in a statement on Wednesday, May 8.
Ghanaians who have attained age 18 and other adult citizens who do not have voter identification cards can participate in the exercise to enable them to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections later this year.
The registration began on May 7 and will last for 21 days.
The EC intends to submit the provisional voter register to the political parties between July 9 and 18, 2024, and mount an exhibition of the voter register between July 15 and 24, 2024.
The final voter register is expected to be submitted to the political parties between August 30 and September 5, 2024.