Police guard biometric in Ashanti region

The Ashanti Regional Police Command has revised its security arrangements for the ongoing biometric voter registration exercise by stationing one police officer at every registration center in the region.

The new arrangement took effect from Monday March, 26, 2012. Making the announcement, the outgoing Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCO Patrick Timbillah, said the violence that had characterized the exercise in the region in the first two days since the biometric registration started influenced the decision by the police.

He said the police initially thought that the registration of people to take part in the December polls was a normal thing which would not trigger violence and injuring of people.

DCOP Timbillah however noted that the rampant troubles that had been recorded at some of the registration centers had become a concern to the police, hence their decision to intervene for the important national exercise to continue without incident.

Speaking with Kessben FM in Kumasi, the police capo noted that his outfit was aware of the shooting incidents and other violent acts that had occurred in some parts of the region, since the registration exercise began on Saturday.

Lamenting about the development which posed serious security threats to the people in the region and the entire populace, DCOP Timbillah said it was appropriate that the police responded to the danger as quickly as possible before it generated into something disastrous.

He entreated political party agents stationed at the various registration centers to comport themselves and report every problem with regard to security to the police for prompt solutions.

DCOP Timbillah urged the populace not to be afraid about the presence of police officers at the registration centers, stressing that the law enforcement agents were there to maintain law and order for the process to go on smoothly.

He explained that the occurrence of violence and tension at some centers had influenced his outfit’s decision to station police personnel at the various centers, assuring that the police were on top of the security situation in the region so nobody should be frightened.