23 Ivorians Who Registered For Ghana Voters’ ID Faces Court Today

Some 23 Ivorian nationals would be put before court today, Monday, August 10 for participating in the just ended voters’ registration exercise in Ghana.

The 23 persons were among 66 alleged Ivorians who were arrested last week in the Banda District of the Bono Region in possession of the new Ghanaian Voter ID cards. 34 of the alleged suspects were identified as Ghanaians.

Nine out of the 66 alleged Ivorians however escaped while they were being sent to Sunyani.

The Second in Command of the Ghana Immigration Service in the Bono Region, Chief Superintendent Henry Ackah disclosed this in a Citi News interview.

“The people who were arrested actually live in a town called Hampi in Ivory Coast and we advised that they bring them to Suhum for proper profiling. So when they were bringing them, on their way, their vehicle broke down and in an effort to get another vehicle, some of them fled so in all they brought 66. Nine escaped. But we profiled the remainder and we realized that out of the number are Ghanaians.”

“So when we interviewed them, we realized that more than half of them actually came from Ghana but some of them have actually settled there. I didn’t do the interview alone, so we had people who could speak French and the dialect around the area. So we got 34 of them being Ghanaians but 23 of them are Ivorians. So we’ve handed them over to the police for prosecution and will be sent to court on Monday, August 10, 2020”.

Two foreigners jailed for acquiring new voters' ID card

Last week, two foreign nationals were sentenced to two years each in prison by the Keta Circuit Court for unlawful acquisition of the Ghana Voter Identity (ID) card.

The two, Mr Okafor Wale, a 47-year old Nigerian and Mr Yao Dieu-Donne Evoda, a 22-year old Togolese, were each convicted on charges of registering for Ghana Voter ID card when not qualified and a prohibited immigrant.

The Police Commander said upon interrogation, the confessed his nationality and mentioned their Togolese accomplice.

They were arrested and subsequently handed over to the Police for action.

“We sent them to court on July 13. The second appearance was on July 27 on which day the court took their plea and deferred pronouncement on the case to July 30. They got two years each on all the counts which run concurrently,” he said

---citinewsroom