Interesting questions are being posed about how a man in broad daylight was able to scale a wall and steal Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) in the old Electoral Commission (EC) building at Ridge in Accra.
It will be recalled that a man was arrested with a BVD in his possession at Nsawam, prompting questions about how the device came to be in his possession.
His statement to law enforcement officers has prompted questions, answers to which are being demanded by watchers of the political space.
The thievery took place on Thursday, August 22, 2024 in broad daylight with police, fire and EC security on 24-hour duty at the location.
Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that upon breaching the security of the place, he removed four louvre blades to gain access to the inside of the office and made away with four BVDs.
It is instructive that the following day after the successful thievery, Friday, August 23, 2024,
his feat was splashed all over social media, as he purportedly sold the devices to an NDC Chairman.
It is also intriguing that the thievery occurred during the week that the NDC said they won’t sign a peace pact until missing BVDs were audited.
A retired Civil Servant, Ben Adams, in a chat with Daily Guide has observed “this cannot be a coincidence. I smell NDC machinations in the drama with the connivance of some EC security staff, and police officers.”
The matter should be investigated thoroughly, he demanded.
Following the arrest of the suspect, the EC, it would be recalled, issued a statement assuring Ghanaians that the theft of the BVD won’t compromise the integrity of the December polls.
EC Assurance
The device, according to the EC, “cannot be used to compromise an election, without the necessary technical and security protocols.”
The EC explains further that the Commission “undertakes deliberate process of preparing a Biometric Verification Device (BVD) for any election that ensures that only BVDs that are prepared for a particular election can be used for that election.”
The Commission added that the process is robust and is not vulnerable to manipulation. “The possession of a BVD that has not gone through this rigorous process that is yet to happen for the 2024 Elections does not affect the integrity of the Elections,” the EC pointed out.
Continuing, the EC said that “the voter verification application is designed such that it only works with data that is prepared, audited, encrypted and signed by a Secure Process. Access to this process is highly restricted. Without access to this Secure Process, Voter Data cannot be generated to work with the BVD. The data that is loaded onto the BVDs are set to be activated for a particular Election Day. A stolen BVD therefore cannot work in the December 2024 Elections.”
By A.R. Gomda