NDC Chairman Registers �Foreigners� In Okere

The Adukrom police have arrested two young men who attempted to register at Adukrom in the Okere constituency of the Eastern region Friday afternoon. The two young men, who gave their names as Baba Vincent, 23, from Akatsi Abor in the Volta region and Mustapha Sheriff, 24, confessed to the police upon interrogation that they were transported from Accra by the constituency chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Douglas Agyei, to register in order to vote for the NDC in December. The police, who confirmed the arrest to journalists, said on Friday afternoon the two young men arrived at Abonde, a polling station at Adukrom, to register, but agents of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) questioned their identities and prevented them from registering. This generated into a heated argument between the agents of the NDC and NPP until the police arrived at the registration centre. According to the police, when the two gentlemen were asked to prove their identities as residents of the area by mentioning the houses they lived in at Adukrom, they could not. The police said they suspected the two men and arrested them and upon interrogations, they confessed that they did not hail from the area but were bussed from Accra by the NDC constituency chairman to come and take part in the exercise at Okere. NPP supporters in the area thronged to the police station to demand the blood of the two. The police told journalists that the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Akuapem North, George Opare Addo, later came to seek for bail for the two young men, but they were refused because of the nature of the case. It was alleged that a vehicle with registration number ER1890 Y belonging to the father of the DCE was used to transport people to the various polling stations to register. Dan Botwe, Member of Parliament for the area cautioned the NDC to desist from such behaviour since it could cause confusion. He also cautioned parents to advise their children to desist from accepting money from political parties so as to register for them since he would make sure that anybody arrested would be dealt with according to the laws of the land.