Farmer Before Court For Possessing 20 Registration Cards, 60 Receipts

Wisdom Gawoe had 20 cards and 60 receipts of some prospective voters in his possession when he was arrested.

Wisdom Gawoe had 20 cards and 60 receipts of some prospective voters in his possession when he was arrested. A 48-year-old farmer at Shia in the Ho Municipality of the Volta Region, Wisdom Gawoe, is before court for unlawfully possessing 20 biometric registration cards and 60 receipts.

Wisdom Gawoe, a polling agent of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Shia, was arrested by a Ho Municipal Police Patrol team, for collecting Biometric Voter Identity cards from people on the pretext that they contained errors that had to be corrected.

Prosecuting, Inspector Sheila Odae told the Ho Municipal Magistrate Court that on April 18, 2012, a police patrol team was monitoring the registration exercise and on reaching Shia, which shares a border with the Republic of Togo, it had intelligence that the accused had collected an unspecified number of cards and receipts from some people.

According to Inspector Sheila Odae, when the accused was searched, 20 ID cards and 60 receipts were found on him.

She said, Gawoe had made it a habit to collect ID cards from people who had registered, with the explanation that corrections had to be made on them.

The prosecutor said the police suspect that he possessed about 216 more cards that the police were tying to locate.

Inspector Odae said that when the accused was questioned, he admitted the offence.

Counsel for the accused, Mr. Ernest Gaewu applied for bail but the judge, Justice Augustine Akusa-am refused saying the gravity of the offence and the accused’s geographical proximity to the Republic of Togo posed a flight risk.

Justice Akusa-am therefore remanded him in prison custody to re-appear on May 8, 2012.