The Electoral Commission (EC) has suspended its Pusiga District Director for allegedly transferring voters in the register without their notice.
According to the EC Deputy Chairman of Operations, Samuel Tettey, the director is the main suspect as no voter transfer in the district could be done without his involvement.
While speaking at a lecture in Tamale, he added that a committee has been set up to investigate the matter.
He said investigations so far have revealed that the illegal transfers were done using the photographs of the voter IDs of the affected persons.
“What the commission realized was that, instead of them going to the centre, they didn’t. Rather, the photographs were captured and that was what they used to affect the transfer.
“Someone collected those cards under the pretext of giving them loans. They managed to get the transfers done without going to the district office. So we have suspended the officer and we are investigating. Those who are involved will be sacked,” Mr Tettey said.
The suspect, identified as Alhassan Lukman, is said to have taken the voter ID cards of some 32 residents of Tamale South and Sagnarigu constituencies with a promise of securing support from some Arabs for them.
The affected residents went later to check their details in the voter exhibition, only to discover that their names were transferred to Pusiga in the Upper East Region.
They quickly reported the issues to the Tamale Metro Police.
Upon investigations, the police arrested Alhassan Lukman.
Following the arrest, the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Northern Region gave a 24-hour ultimatum to arrest any official who aided the illegal transfer.
The party warned that the EC’s credibility would suffer if it did not comply.