EC theft case: One granted bail, three others still on remand

The Circuit Court at Dansoman has been informed that one of the four persons remanded in connection with the stolen biometric devices and laptops belonging to the Electoral Commission (EC) has been granted bail.

Joseph Blackson Adumadzi, a database administrator, was said to have been granted bail by the High Court after the Circuit Court had previously remanded him.

This was made known to the court by his lawyers on Monday, April 29.

Adumadzi and two other staff members of the EC, Philip Tetteh, a labourer, and Benjamin Fienyi, a security man, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to steal.

A fourth person, Clifford Yeboah, 23, a student, also denied the charge of dishonestly receiving.

In court on Monday, April 29, 2024, counsel for Adumadzi, the third accused, said his client had been granted bail by the High Court.

He explained that they were yet to serve the High Court’s proceeding on the police for Adumadzi to execute his bail.

Meanwhile, the lawyers of Clifford Yeboah, a student, prayed for bail for his client using the High Court’s decision on Adumadzi.

Counsel submitted that Yeboah has forfeited his examination because of the case, adding that some items have been retrieved from him.

The value of the said items, he said, was not more than GHC2,000.

It was also his case that Yeboah walked to the court by himself before being lawfully remanded by the court at his first appearance to buttress his case for bail.

Prosecution’s surprise:

The prosecution led by Chief Inspector Christopher Wonder said he was surprised that Adumadzi has been granted bail by the High Court considering the national interest of the case.

He, therefore, prayed for a few days so they could finalize their investigations into the matter.

The prosecution said the police had not retrieved the Dell laptops, which contained biodata and important information.

He said the police would, by the end of the day, serve accused persons and their lawyers with disclosures.

Before the case was adjourned to May 6, 2024, the accused persons had not arrived at the court.

Brief facts:

Per the brief facts of the case, the complainants are officials of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC).

The accused persons are Philip Tattey, Benjamin Fienyi, Joseph Blankson Adumadzi, and Clifford Yeboah.

Chief Inspector Wonder said all accused persons except Clifford Yeboah (4th Accused) are workers of the Electoral Commission of Ghana.

He said that on March 9, 2024, officers from the ICT Department of the Electoral Commission began conducting routine maintenance on the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits.

He explained that each of the kit boxes contains a laptop computer, printer, scanner, battery, and biometric device.

The prosecutor said that during the maintenance, the officials detected that five Dell laptop computers had been stolen from their kit boxes.

Chief Inspector Wonder told the Court that a complaint was lodged with the National Security and in the course of investigation, all accused persons were arrested.

The Prosecutor said that during an investigation, three HP laptop computers, whose values are not yet known, were retrieved from Clifford Yeboah (4th Accused).

He added that one HP printer and three Biometric Verification Device (BVD) printer chargers were also retrieved from Benjamin Fienyi (2nd Accused).

The prosecutor said all retrieved items are properties of the Electoral Commission of Ghana.

According to him, investigations so far revealed that, in March 2023, the Commission engaged its casual workers and security men to remove some of their materials from the warehouse at the Commission’s old head office at Ridge to one of their warehouses at Spintex.

He said Benjamin (2nd accused) and A3 (Joseph Blankson) planned to steal some of the printers.

In furtherance of their plan, Joseph stole the HP printer from one of the kit boxes and handed it over to Benjamin.

He said Benjamin also stole three Biometric Verification Device (BVD) printer chargers and sent them home.

Philip Tetteh (1st Accused), on the other hand, stole three HP laptop computers from the kit boxes and gave the same to Clifford Yeboah to keep and repair the remaining two for him.

He said the accused persons were charged and arraigned before this Honourable Court while the investigation continues.