A team of investigators from the CID Headquarters have visited thirteen persons who were wounded and rushed to the Legon and 37 Military Hospitals during a shootout at the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election held yesterday.

The police have started their investigations following statements they received from the injured persons.

In a press release signed by the Superintendent of Police, Sheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman, it said, “Police took statements from the injured persons except one person who is admitted to the 37 Military Hospital.”

The police are therefore entreating all and sundry to help identify the shooters and or feed the police with information on the alleged ‘vigilante’.

Background

NDC withdrawal

The NDC withdrew from the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election following the shooting incident and ordered its polling agents and observers from the area after consulting with its parliamentary candidate.

“In the circumstances, I have conferred with the parliamentary candidate and the leadership of the NDC. We have no option than to withdraw from the ongoing exercise,” the National Chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, said to the press.

“As a party, we believe in rule of law. We’ve been in by-elections before and we don’t that we are in a war zone. But this by-election has been turned into a war zone. We cannot subject any of our members to danger because of the election.”



CODEO urged the Electoral Commission and the security agencies to give hearing to the NDC regarding their concerns about the electoral process which resulted in their boycott.
NDC to blame

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has responded to the development blaming the NDC for the chaos.

The party said the confusion was orchestrated by the opposition party.

The NPP’s Director of Communications, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, said: “this is a hugely orchestrated attempt by the NDC because they knew from the beginning that they were going to lose.”

The party’s General Secretary, John Boadu, also said the NDC was trying to scare people from voting.



“This is the impression our opponents want to create in order to scare people from going to vote. Other than that what is the problem? Our sisters and brothers on the other side always will want to create confusion. When they are in government, it is worse, and when they are in opposition, they are more dangerous.”

At the end of the by-election, Npp’s Lydia Alhassan won the seat with 12,041 votes representing 68.30%