A spokesman for Alan Kyerematen’s Alliance for Revolutionary Change (ARC) Movement, Solomon Owusu has urged the National Security to pick up the commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC) led by Jean Mensa in connection with the alleged theft of five Biometric Verification Registration (BVR) devices.
The election management body, after a series of denials, recently confirmed that some of its BVRs had been stolen from its stores, raising eyebrows in the country.
As the main opposition NDC mounted pressure on the EC to find the equipment, the Commission reported that some staff had been interdicted in connection with the stolen BVRs.
Earlier this week, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, told newsmen that the Commission had handed over some 5 individuals suspected to be involved in the alleged theft of the BVR devices to the police.
But speaking on the Pampaso programme on radio Gold, Owusu said Charlotte Osei, the former chairperson of the EC, was ousted for alleged procurement breaches hence Jean Mensa the current chair must be fired for the missing devices from the EC’s warehouse.
“I think the National Security must pick Jean Mensa and her other commissioners at the EC over the missing biometric verification devices,” Owusu said as he alleged that the equipment had been given to some elements in the NPP to mar the integrity of the upcoming limited registration exercise and possibly the December 7 elections.
“One of the things they [the commissioners] can do is to resign for superintending over the activities that led to the theft of the equipment else the integrity of the general elections will be at stake,” he added.
“Former EC Boss, Afari-Gyan is alive and can be handed a contract to oversee the upcoming elections.”
To him, if the EC boss is not removed from office, the results of the elections can be compromised and plunge the country into chaos.
“I have heard that the missing equipment is in Kumasi and being used to secretly register people in Manhyia South,” he alleged and dared the NPP to deny the claim.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has challenged the Electoral Commission (EC) to publish the names of its staff who have been arrested in connection with the alleged theft of the BVR devices.
Asiedu Nketiah cast doubt over the assertions of Dr Quaicoe about the arrests and urged the EC to publish the names of the staff who had been handed over to the police.
Speaking on Inside Politics on TV XYZ, Asiedu Nketia also known as General Mosquito quizzed: “Who are those people who have been arrested? Have they published anyone’s name? Don’t they have names? Why have they not been exposed?”
“The persons who have stolen the equipment can register people everywhere in the EC’s database. We have seen NPP-affiliated persons taking peoples’ Ghana cards outside Ghana elsewhere. Tell us those you have apprehended,” he said in Akan.
Source: Ghanaweb
