Jean Mensa – EC Chairperson
Three employees of the Electoral Commission (EC) and a student have been remanded into police custody over the theft of electronic equipment belonging to the EC.
Philip Lartey, labourer; Benjamin Fienyi, security man; Joseph Blankson Adumadzie, Database Administrator and Clifford Yeboah, a student are accused of stealing five Dell laptop computers from the Biometric Voter Registration Kits (BVR) of the EC.
The EC officials have been charged with one count of conspiracy to steal, and two counts of stealing, while Clifford Yeboah has been charged with one count of dishonestly receiving.
They all pleaded not guilty to all four charges and the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Christopher Wonder, prayed the court to remand the accused to prevent them from interfering with ongoing investigations into the theft.
He said the police have only received three of the laptops so far, and efforts are being made to retrieve the remaining two which contain important data.
The presiding judge, Halima Abdul El Lawal Basit, remanded the four into police custody to reappear on April 29, 2024.
The prosecution’s brief facts name the complainant in the case as officials of the Electoral Commission.
A court document states that on March 9, 2024, officers from the ICT Department of the Electoral Commission began conducting routine maintenance on the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits.
It revealed that each of the kit boxes contains a laptop computer, printer, scanner, battery and biometric device.
During the maintenance exercise, the officials detected that five of the Dell laptop computers had been stolen from their kit boxes.
The documents disclosed that a complaint was lodged with the National Security, and in the course of investigation, all accused persons were arrested.
During investigation, three HP laptop computers were retrieved from Clifford Yeboah while one HP printer and three Biometric Verification Device (BVD) printer chargers were also retrieved from Benjamin Fienyi.
It says all the retrieved items are properties of the Electoral Commission of Ghana.
“Investigation so far revealed that, in March 2023, the Commission engaged its casual workers and security men to remove some of their materials from the warehouse at the Commission’s old Head Office at Ridge to one of their warehouses at Spintex,” the document states.
The document points out that Fienyi and Joseph Blankson Adumadzie had planned to steal some of the printers and in furtherance of their plan, Adumadzie stole the HP printer from one of the kit boxes and handed it over to Fienyi.
It says Fienyi also stole three Biometric Verification Device (BVD) printer chargers and sent them home.
Philip Lartey, on the other hand, is accused of stealing three HP laptop computers from the kit boxes and gave same to Clifford Yeboah to keep one and repair the remaining two for him.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak