EC Officials Apprehended For Allegedly Attempting To Sign Pink Sheets

Peacefmonline.com can confirm that two officers of the Savelugu District Electoral Commission are in the grips of the Northern Regional Police Command for conniving and allegedly bribing Presiding officers in the December 2012 Elections to sign unsigned Pink Sheets, two months after the Polls. The arrest of one Miss Salamatu Osman, said to be a National Service personnel at the Commission and Amani Benjamin Akandi who is the Savelugu/Nantong Electoral Officer, was the result of a vigilant action by members of the Savelugu constituency NPP who claim to have picked intelligence on the ongoing validation of the unsigned pink sheets. Recounting the incident on Sunday, Kwabena Ntow of Fila FM, Tamale, an affiliate station of PeaceFM, said the NPP group which effected a citizen�s arrest claim to have seized fifteen (15) of the pink sheets some of which had just been validated and others which were in the process of being validated. According to him, the National Service personnel confessed to the act of getting Presiding officers to validate their unsigned pink sheets on the orders of the Savelugu/Nantong District Electoral officer who was subsequently also apprehended by members of the NPP. Peacefmonline understands that the two Electoral Commission officials have been moved to the Regional Police Headquarters which has been besieged by hundreds of ardent NPP supporters. ��the NPP youth in the area besieged the premises of the Police Station demanding answers from the arrested persons as to why they were secretly inviting some presiding officers to sign the pink sheets and allegedly taking money in return,� Kwabena Ntow narrated. Members of the Regional executive body of the New Patriotic Party including the Regional Secretary, Clifford Braimah, the Regional Youth Organizer, Rashid COP and others are said to have quickly moved into Savelugu to take control of matters and calm the agitated supporters of the party who see the actions of the two EC officials as attempts to cover up the massive irregularities which affected the conduct and outcome of the December polls, for which reason the Party is praying the Supreme Court to overturn the declaration made by the Electoral Commission on the outcome of the polls. The plaintiff�s petition of 28th December 2012 to the Supreme Court claimed that over 200,000 votes have been affected by absence of signatures of the Presiding Officers in the affected Polling stations and since this was an irregularity, are praying the Court to annul all such votes. Meanwhile, the head of the Electoral Commission in the Northern Region, Sylvester Kanye has stated that he has not endorsed any such move. �As a matter of fact, where I am, I have not asked anybody to give anything to any person,� he said.