Six disqualified presidential aspirants for the upcoming 2016 general elections have turned themselves into the police to answer questions concerning the anomalies detected on their nomination forms.
The six reported themselves to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service over the weekend, in the company of their lawyers.
[contextly_sidebar id=”b7NVutZu6Buq30jxbiF1ba7QWG0XpFcc”]Updating the Daily Graphic on the turn of events over the weekend, the Director General of the CID, Prosper Kwame Agblor said Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People’s Party’s (PPP), Mr. Henry Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Mr. Hassan Ayariga of the All People’s Congress (APC), Mr. Kwabena Adjei of the Reform Patriotic Democrats (RDP), Mr. Kofi Akpaloo of the Independent People’s Party (IPP) and Nana Agyenim Boateng of the United Front Party (UFP) had reported themselves to the police for questioning.
According to Mr. Agblor, Mrs Nana Konadu Ageymang Rawlings of the National Democratic Party and Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention (PNC) were yet to report themselves to the police.
The chase
Last week, the CID turned the heat on the eight disqualified presidential aspirants whose subscribers committed various offences while endorsing the aspirants’ nomination forms.
Mr Agblor said the six who reported themselves to the police had since been granted self-recognizance bail while investigations were ongoing.
He said they were likely to be charged with abetment of crime after investigations.
“The presidential aspirants were the ones who presented the nomination forms in contention to the Electoral Commission. The will be charged with abetment of crime if investigations conclude that they are culpable,” he said.
Background
Following disqualification of 13 presidential nominees whose forms were endorsed by such persons, the EC saidd these acts were criminal in nature, hence their decision to ask the Attorney General to prosecute such persons.
Evidence of some of the offenses were seen in the forms of the Progressive People’s Party’s (PPP) aspirant, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, the All People’s Congress’ Hassan Ayariga, and the Independent People’s Party’s (IFP) Kofi Akpaloo, among others.
In the case of Dr. Nduom, the EC revealed that one of the subscribers who endorsed his nomination form was found to be legitimately on the register of the Volta Region, yet he went ahead to sign the forms in the Central Region as well with different signatures. The name of the subscriber was given as Richard Aseda.
The IPP’s Kofi Akpaloo, Hassan Ayariga of the APC, Dr. Nana Agyenim Boateng of the United Front Party, Dr. Henry Herbert Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and Thomas Nuako Ward-Brew of the Democratic People’s Party, similarly had multiple subscribers having different signatures on the nomination forms, again raising questions as to the legitimacy of the signatures.
In the case of the Reformed Democrat’s Party (RDP) Kwabena Adjei, two subscribers for his forms were not registered voters as they are on the exclusion list for multiple registrations, according to the EC.
The two persons are listed as Stephen Owusu and Fusheini Mariama/ Abdulai Mariama; both possessing two voter ID cards each.
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Source: Graphic Online with files from citifmonline.com