Three men, including the Asawase Constituency secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kumasi, Ashanti Regional capital, who were allegedly caught printing fake Electoral Commission (EC) accreditation cards on voting day (December 7), have been remanded into custody.
The three, Stephen Shandu, 54; Richard Gyan, 41 and Awuah Amoah Gyasi, 37, were arrested at about 1:30 pm at the Ark Jam Printing Press located at the Central Business District of Kumasi.
They were reportedly found with 128 fake accreditation cards when police officers stormed the printing house following a tipoff. They face three charges of conspiracy, forgery of official documents and possession of forged documents.
The cards reportedly had the names of some NDC faithful and other individuals embossed on them when the law enforcement officers seized them.
Stephen Shandu, the NDC Secretary for Asawase, is reported to have engaged the printing house to print the cards, with the intention of using them to cause confusion and trouble during the polls.
All of them pleaded not guilty to all the charges when they appeared before the Kumasi circuit court on Friday and would re-appear in court on December 22, 2016 for their trial to continue.
The court heard that an accomplice of the trio, whose name was only given as Sly, was said to be on the run, as police were making frantic efforts to track him down.
Police prosecutor, ASP Asumadu Okyere-Darko, informed the curt presided over by Mary Nsenkyire that Shandu is the Asawase Constituency secretary of NDC, while the two others are printers.
According to him, on December 7, 2016 at about 1:30 pm when voting was underway across the country, the police received information that the accused persons were printing accreditation cards of the EC at a printing house at Adum.
ASP Okyere-Darko said policemen proceeded to the venue and arrested the three who had in their possession 128 printed election observation cards that appeared to be similar to the ones issued by the EC.
He narrated that the said cards were declared to be fake by officials of the EC during police investigation.
The prosecutor maintained that Stephen Shandu claimed in his caution statement that he was acting on the instructions of the runaway suspect, Sly.
Shandu’s plea for bail through his counsel, George Fuseini, was turned down by the court.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi