IGP, David Asante Apeatu
The Police are on the heels of the hoodlums who pulled the triggers first from the residence of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, forcing the police to react during the by-election in Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency last Thursday.
The confrontation resulted in injuries and a restricted security breach.
DAILY GUIDE can confirm that but for the ill-fated firing of gunshots, which originated from the residence of the NDC candidate, Delali Kwesi Brempong, the isolated security breach whose outcome was largely exaggerated particularly on social media would not have occurred.
As many as six deaths were reported by some mainstream media outlets in what was regarded by some observers as part of a grand scheme to give the polls a bloody coloration.
However, details from the law enforcement agency hinged upon hospital records negated the death reports.
A 1st February 2019 press release from the Ghana Police Service’s Public Affairs Directorate pointed at the hunt for the shooters which led to the sustaining of injuries by a little over a dozen persons; some of them receiving treatment at the 37 Military Hospital.
The injured persons were part of party activists who had been deployed to the candidate’s residence as they awaited further directives.
The unexpected development scuttled the intended operations for which they were assembled, according to sources in the security agencies.
An earlier report by DAILY GUIDE presaged a nasty occurrence during the polls which was intended to rob the by-election of its shine and possibly disrupt it.
The Police release, signed by Sup/Ms Shiella Kessie Abayie-Buckman, appealed to anybody with information on the incident to call 0244623866, 0242814863.
Persons with credible information have been directed to send same to hq. pro@police.gov. gh or padphotopol@gmail.com
One of the vehicles which conveyed the NDC activists for the Thursday assignment bore the registration number GT 9829-11.
The plan was a complex operation which was to end in a scuttled by-election and give the managers of the polls a bad name, thereby inciting the people of Ghana against them.
The resounding success of the polls even after the failed withdrawal by NDC when the end of voting was barely three hours away did not inure to the interest of the planners of the complex operation which never was.
The display of an AK 47 during an NDC press conference by the grouping’s Chairman as being a firearm seized from an NPP activist during the confusion at the residence of the MP has provoked varied questions.
Many wondered why the weapon was not handed over to the Police whose forensic experts can trace its ownership using its serial numbers.
AK 47s are part of firearms which are restricted to the security agencies and would not be licensed to private persons.
An NDC top official has also boasted that their party has weapons; assertion which triggers questions about its authenticity and whether the law enforcement agency would be interested in finding out more from this source if it was not mere political talk or hot air.
By A.R. Gomda