Retrieved thumb-printed ballot papers fake – DCOP Kofi Boakye

The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP, Nathan Kofi Boakye has said the supposed ballot papers retrieved by the police in Kumasi are fake.

The Ghanaian media space on Monday morning were inundated with reports of three bags containing ballot papers said to have allegedly been thumb-printed in favour of President John Dramani Mahama.

The bags were retrieved from Madison hotel, room 4.

The news drew a huge crowd of supporters of the New Patriotic Party trooping to the Regional Police Command demanding justice is done.

But speaking on Peace FM Monday, DCOP, Nathan Kofi Boakye stated that the ballot papers upon inspection by the Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Mr Serebour Quaicoo, were found out to be counterfeit.

“Once there were claims that the materials were ballot papers, that meant it was from the Electoral Commission. So I called in the EC Regional Director who upon assessing the materials confirmed they were fake. There are no serial numbers on the said ballot papers. Some of them have been fingerprinted with ink pads and not the ink that is provided by the EC during voting. We’ve shown them to journalists around.”

He added:”We’ve just been informed that there are more somewhere. So we’ve provided security detail for some journalist to move in with the police to retrieve the said ballot papers. So that we can examine those as well.”

DCOP Kofi Boakye added that the police will still continue with investigations despite the materials being confirmed to be fake.