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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for New Juaben South in the Eastern Region, Dr Kwaku Owusu-Acheampong, and the constituency secretary, Foster Tetteh, were on Tuesday taken hostage by angry NDC registration agents for allegedly diverting some money meant for their allowances in the monitoring of the registration exercise. The party agents were paid GH�50 each for the 10-day period of the first phase of the registration exercise but the agents claimed that they were to receive GH�300 for the period and therefore rejected the money amidst threat of boycott of the exercise. The scene at the regional party office where the officers were taken hostage was tense as the party agents locked the conference hall of the regional office where they had been invited to receive the money. They virtually charged on the parliamentary candidate as well as the constituency secretary when they were told that they would be given GH�50. �We were told that we would be given GH�30 for each day so for the 10 days we were entitled to GH�300 but surprisingly, these people have come to tell us that we would be paid just GH�50,� one of the agents told DAILY GUIDE, stressing that party officials in the region were taking them for granted. �We can�t come here very early in the morning and sit in the sun for about 12 hours and just to be paid GH�5 yet we claim our party is in power. What this means is that the work would be done anyhow and our opponents, NPP will have a great advantage,� the agent said. The locked-up officers were so much afraid that they had to send an SOS message to the police who readily dispatched armed men to the office to free them from the angry party agents. When the parliamentary candidate was contacted, he confirmed the incident but said they intentionally locked themselves up in the hall to avoid a situation where any of the angry agents could snatch the money they had on them to be given to them. �It is not true that they locked us up but they were indeed not happy that they were going to be given GH�50 for the 10-day period,� he said, adding that it was a mere perception that they were to be given GH�300 for the 10-day period because the party paid each of them GH�30 a day for a crash training programme which should have taken three days. He added that that everything was under control.