Ashanti NDC accuses police of abetment
The Ashanti Regional branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Regional Police Command of aiding and abetting the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to register minors and molesting its leading members in the ongoing limited voters registration.
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They argued that although the NDC had resorted to the prescribed ways of challenging the registration of minors by using the challenged forms, the NPP had used machomen men with the support of the police to brutalise its innocent members.
However, in a sharp rebuttal, the Regional Police PRO, ASP Yusif Tanko, told the Daily Graphic that the police was disappointed in the unfair utterances by both the NDC and the NPP member who had accused the police of bias and also urged their supporters to protect themselves.
He described the allegations by the two as indications that “the police was doing its work well in ensuring that both sides stay on track” with regard to the rules and regulations governing the limited voters registration.
Mr Tanko said earlier, the NPP’s Regional Youth Organiser, Mr Justin Kodua, accused the police of bias.
NDC Claims
At the burnt NDC regional headquarters, Mr Kwame Zu, the Deputy National Organiser, who blamed the opposition NPP of being behind the arson attack, described the police as “men of NPP in uniform who have started brutalising the leadership of the NDC at Asokore Mampong”.
He said surprisingly, the NDC that had been using laid-down procedure such as filling forms to challenge the registration of minors had rather been at the receiving end of attacks leading to the molestation of its Asawase constituency executive and the Regional Chairman, Mr Yaw Obimpeh.
He said police treated the NDC executive, including its regional chairman, as common criminals.
Mr Zu alleged that the police falsely accused an NDC registration agent and arrested him for calling in machomen to destroy registration equipment.
Police Search
Explaining the Asokore Mampong allegations, ASP Tanko said contrary to the claim by the NDC, the police had mounted a search for a group of well-built men who force fully freed a group of people who had been arrested by the police at Asokore Mampong during the limited voters registration last Saturday.
Narrating the incident, the Regional Police PRO, ASP Yusif Tanko told the Daily Graphic that a number of people came to the registration centre causing pandemonium and the police managed to arrest some of them only for a larger group of people to come in and free them before a police reinforcement could come around.
The police command last Friday arrested 26-year-old Joseph Bambuni at Gyinyase LA Primary School registration centre at Asokwa for allegedly calling in machomen to destroy the registration computers and taking away the challenge forms.
There had been isolated cases of violence in some registration centres in the region but the Regional Police PRO insisted that the police would ensure that all the political parties played according to the rules governing the registration.