Crime & Punishment of Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Source: GNA

Six in court for allegedly disrupting biometric registration exercise

Six persons who allegedly disrupted the on-going Biometric Voters Registration Exercise at a centre in Accra on Wednesday appeared before an Accra Circuit Court.

They were alleged to have invaded Taifa Pentecost Church Registration Centre.

The accused persons are Kingsley Awuni, farmer, Kofi Ofori, student, Kwabena Boateng, driver, Prince Oduro Charles, aka soldier, Edward Anato Linkoh, student and Zakaria Abdul Amid, a.k.a Zak.

They pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and interfering with registration of voters’ proceedings of public elections.

The court presided over by Ms Audrey Kocuvie-Tay admitted them to bail in the sum of GH¢50,000 each with two sureties each.

They are to report to the Police every Monday, and would re-appear on April 16.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Reindolph Agyemang, prosecuting, said on March 26, this year, at about 1130 hours, Police from the Greater Accra Regional Criminal Investigations (CID) heard that some “Macho” men had invaded the centre and were disrupting registration proceedings.

He said the accused persons wearing black jackets, drove to the centre in a 4x4 Tundra vehicle with registration number GT 7327 Y.

The Police proceeded to the place and arrested them and during interrogation, they said they were recruited by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency known as Fordjour to tour all the registration centres in the area to enable NPP members to go through the registration exercise smoothly.

The prosecutor said the accused persons told the Police that the vehicle was to facilitate their movement from one centre to the other.

“The accused persons however, denied that they were disrupting or interfering with the registration exercise,” the prosecutor said.**