NPP dismisses allegations Bawumia bribed sacked EC officials

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has dismissed allegations that its Vice Presidential Candidate, Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia, induced some Electoral Commission (EC) workers with GH¢10,000 to break electoral laws.

Deputy Communications Director of the party, Anthony Karbo, says Dr Bawumia did nothing wrong when he received two EC officials to his home to verify his name on electoral roll.

According to him, the practice is not new.
He explained that Dr Bawumia had gone to a polling station in Walewale in the Northern Region to verify if his name was on the register, but returned home because of the long queue at the station.

He said out of respect for Dr Bawumia, the Electoral Commission officers offered to come to his house to verify him.

“Indeed my understanding is that they [EC officials] only brought the electoral register. He looked at it and realized that his name was still on the register and then asked them to go,” Anthony Karbo explained to Joy News Anchor, Evans Mensah.

Anthony Karbo said the incident was not the first, and has dismissed suggestions that electoral laws have been broken.

“In Laura for instance, the Paramount Chief of Laura didn’t go down to get himself registered. For many of the paramount chiefs, the Electoral Commission officials take the document to them,” he defended.

Dr Bawumia
The two EC officials at the Walewale District office who sent the voter’s register to Dr Bawumia’s house, Jobey Ambrose and Mumuni Latiffa, have since been sacked.

It has been alleged that they took the sum of GH₵10,000 from the Vice Presidential Candidate.

Narrating the issue to Joy news' Francis Abban, District EC Director, Benjamin Bamubio, said the Commission got wind of the incident following a tip-off.

He said the duo when interrogated said someone called them that there were some people who were on their way to check their particulars.

After having waited for sometime, nobody showed up. They were later told the people were inside a particular house. The two took the register and verification machine and went to the house.

When they got to the house, they were asked to verify the particulars of Dr Bawumia. This incident happened around 5:30p.m. on Tuesday.

"This is something that was against the Electoral Commission so I instructed the supervisors to immediately drop the two and replace them with new officers to continue the work for the Electoral Commission," he said.

The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) is asking for a harsher punishment for the two other than a mere dismissal.

Walewale Constituency Communications Officer, Imoro Abdul Razak, says information reaching them indicates this has been the plan of the opposition NPP in the District to influence the verification process.

"Our investigation has shown that a senior official at the District office instructed the two officers to send the Biometric Verification Device (BVD) to Dr Bawumia's house," he said, adding, an alarm must be raised as the nation marches into the election.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | GN