Afari-Gyan deserves to be in jail - Jumah

Former Asokwa Legislator, Maxwell Kofi Jumah says Ghana’s Electoral Commission Chairman deserves to be in jail by now.

The former Kumasi Mayor has accused Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan of making the state waste US$96 million on “useless” biometric registration and verification machines used for the 2013 general elections.

“US$96 million thrown to the dogs, useless, the machine is useless and indeed if I had my way, Afari-Gyan will be in jail today for causing financial loss alone,” he said at the New Patriotic Party’s media forum held Wednesday at the party’s headquarters to assess President John Mahama’s first year in office.

He wondered why Kenya bought roughly about the same number of biometric verification machines just as Ghana did but paid far less than the West African country.

“Kenya has 45 million people and went through biometric registration just as we did…They registered 14 million voters… Ghana also went through biometric registration, barely half Kenya’s population; 24 million, we also registered 14 million voters… They bought approximately 36,000 biometric machines for US$16 million. Ghana bought about the same - 32,000 or so - and we paid US$96 million,” Kofi Jumah said.

In his view therefore, the EC boss made Ghana lose a lot of money through the procurement of the biometric registration and verification machines for which Dr Afari-Gyan should be punished.