General News of Friday, 17 May 2019

Source: classfmonline.com

IPAC: EC boss' armed, 'gbonyo'-faced bodyguard 'intimidated' me with 'queer' looks – Mornah

Bernard Mornah, Chairman of PNC Bernard Mornah, Chairman of PNC

The Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Mr Bernard Mornah, has accused the Electoral Commission of deliberately intimidating political party representatives who participated in Thursday’s Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting with excessive police bodyguards, one of whom, he claimed, gave him a frightening look during the closed-door meeting.

According to Mr Mornah, everyone who entered the premises of the election management body on Thursday was searched, including him.

He told Class91.3FM that his little bag, which contained his packed lunch – kenkey and fish – was confiscated by the security personnel during the search, and, therefore, decided not to eat the food, since, in his view, anything could have been done to the food.

He wondered why an “inept” EC would resort to such excessive use of police officers to the extent of allowing the EC Chairperson’s bodyguard into a meeting solely reserved for IPAC members.

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr John Boadu such there was nothing wrong with the EC’s use of security men to ensure safety at such a “sensitive” place just is done by some hotels and sensitive institutions in the country.

Mr Boadu accused Mr Mornah of lying about being intimidated by the police officer who guarded the EC Chair in the meeting room.

Justifying the need for such a security arrangement, a Deputy Commissioner of the EC in charge of operations, Dr Bossman Asare, told journalists that there had been some security breaches at the election management body lately, thus, necessitated the new security arrangements based upon the advice of the security apparatus.