An Accra High Court has remanded 3 staff of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) and 1 student for stealing laptops and Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs).
When the case was called on Tuesday, April 16 at the Dansoman Circuit Court, three staff of the Electoral Commission; Philip Tetteh, a 26-year-old labourer, Benjamin Fienyi, a security man and Joseph Blackson Adumadze, a 37-year-old database administrator pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy to steal and stealing.
23-year-old Clifford Yeboah, a student also pleaded not guilty for dishonestly receiving.
The Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Christopher Wonder prayed the court presided over by Halima Abdul El Lawal Basit to remand the accused persons since investigations were still underway and granting them bail could interfere in the process.
The prosecution also indicated that three HP laptops had been retrieved while Del laptops containing critical data were yet to be recovered. The case has since been adjourned to April 29, 2024
It would be recalled that on Tuesday, March 19, Minority Leader Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson indicated that the EC confirmed that the missing seven BVDs cannot be identified.
The Minority Leader has since called on the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and other security agencies to “immediately issue a statement giving us the details of their investigations so far,” adding, “I am concerned and worried because that devices in the hands of an unknown person can compromise the future elections”.
But addressing the press in Accra on Wednesday, March 20, a Deputy Commissioner at the EC, Dr. Bossman Asare, said, “These allegations are not true. No BVD has been stolen. To set the records straight, the Commission recently undertook routine servicing of its Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits.
“It was during this maintenance that we discovered the theft of five (5) laptops from the Biometric Voter Registration kits, not seven BVDs as erroneously stated.
“For clarification, Biometric Voter Registration Kits, which comprise a laptop, camera, scanner, and printer, are entirely separate from the Commission’s Registration Data Systems and are incapable of manipulating election outcomes as suggested,” said Dr. Asare.
More soon…