Teacher arrested for disrupting voter registration

Wa, May 11, GNA- The Wa police have arrested a 31-year-old teacher, Mr illiasu Issah, for organizing a group in Tanina in the Wa East District to disrupt the on-going voter registration exercise The police are also looking his accomplices.

Mr Yahaya Mahama, Regional Director of the Electoral Commission told the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Wa on Thursday that before the re-opening of the voter register the commission was informed that some people were planning to boycott the exercise at Tanina. He said he and a member of the commission, Mr Aggrey Fynn, held a meeting with the group after which they rescinded their decision. Mr Mahama said it therefore came as a surprise when on the first day of the exercise all the community members led by Iliasu Issah decided to chase away the registration officers.

Their grievance was that they had been placed under the new Wa East District instead of Wa Municipal or Wa West District.

He said after talking to them the elders agreed but the youth led by the teacher remained adamant and there was no other option than to report his conduct to the police who subsequently arrested him. Confirming the story, Mr Robert Ayalingo, the Deputy Regional Police Commander, said the suspect would be arraigned before court. He said although the Regional Secretariat of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) had appealed on his behalf it was not expedient to release him.

Mr Ayalingo said Issah repeatedly told the Police that it was a majority decision and he alone could not reverse it.

"You see the registration exercise is taking place in the school that he teaches and we cannot guarantee the safety of the registration officers if we release him. We shall not release him until the exercise ends", he said.

Issah who spoke to the GNA in handcuffs confirmed the police story. He said seven out of the nine sections of the village had all agreed to boycott the exercise and all elections if they were not placed in the Wa Municipal or Wa West District and that it would be a betrayal for him to succumb to the demands of the police and the Electoral Commission.