GUNSHOTS AT AKUSE
From Isaac Akwetey-Okunor, Akuse
But for the timely intervention of police personnel dispatched from the Akuse District Police Command, the on-going biometric voter registration exercise in six electoral areas in Akuse would have been marred by bloodshed.
The exercise, which started at about 7:00 a.m. in a peaceful atmosphere, took a different dimension, when a group of hooligans from nowhere stormed the Roman Catholic Junior High School (JHS), one of the polling stations where the exercise was taking place.
The electoral areas are Saloon, Bungalow, Osorkutu, Zongo, Amedeka and Akutue. The trouble makers, on arrival at the polling station, started taking photographs of prospective registrants, and further asked the Electoral Commission (EC) officials to stop work.
Even before the EC officials could obey the directive of their “masters”, the group started subjecting the officials to severe beatings, and vandalised some of the electoral machines in the process.
Upon receiving information, the Akuse District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Douglas Kumah, dispatched some of his men to the scene. Several warning shots were fired to disperse the hooligans, who were bent on making trouble.
Six persons, Haruna Tetteh, 31, Kwabena Amoako, 46, Emmanuel Tetteh, 36, Ernest Tamatey, 41, Aziator Tetteh, 46, and Isaac Tetteh, 34, were arrested in the process. They have since been taken to the Eastern Regional Police Command for further interrogation and detention.
Speaking to The Chronicle, DSP Kumah expressed worry over the rate of indiscipline that had gradually taken center stage in the area.
The DSP explained that he would exercise the powers bestowed on him to ensure peace before, during, and after the ten-day exercise.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) of the Lower Manya Krobo, Isaac Agbo Tetteh, has meanwhile, called on residents of the area to give peace a chance during the exercise.
The DCE was full of praise for the high level of professionalism and security arrangement displayed by the police, which helped to avoid bloodshed.
Akuse has been at the center of a dispute between the Dangme West District, now the Shai Osudoku District, in the Greater Accra Region, and the Lower Manya Krobo District in the Eastern Region, following the decision by the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation to place the Akuse Electoral Area under the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region, a move which has infuriated the authorities and residents of the Manya Krobo Traditional Area.
This development affected the six electoral areas in Akuse, as the Electoral Commission failed to conduct the recently held biometric voters’ registration.
The Supreme Court, however, overturned the verdict of Parliament, paving the way for the EC to conduct the ongoing registration exercise.
Short URL: http://thechronicle.com.gh/?p=45799