Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Justice Samuel Agyei, on Monday caused a big stir at a registration centre at Odumase in the Sunyani West Constituency when he ordered registration officials to register his three children.
The registration bid of the minister’s three kids: Agyei Emmanuel Derrick, 20; Amanda Agyei Fosua, 18 and Sherry Agyei (age yet to be established), who reside with their father at the Residency, had earlier been declined by registration officials when they were said to have gone to the Odumase Maize Market centre to register.
This was after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) agents had protested that they do not reside in the electoral area.
However, a few hours later, around 4:30 pm, Mr. Agyei stormed the centre with his three kids in the company of his bodyguard, went straight to the registration officials and ordered them to register his children.
The development, DAILY GUIDE gathered, resulted in confusion and nearly marred the registration process at the centre.
The NPP agents requested for Challenge Forms to register their protest, but the registration officer denied them the forms under the pretext that they had run out of them (forms).
Despite the protest, the deputy minister had his kids registered and issued with their respective voter ID cards.
The registration officials resisted efforts by the NPP agents to have the voter ID cards withheld.
Later in a petition addressed to the Electoral Commission (EC), the Sunyani West NPP Secretary, Perry Augustine Ohemeng, called on the Commission to change the registration officials at the centre and further ban them from undertaking the exercise in the district.
“Due to the unprofessional attitude of the registration officials at this registration centre, we have the conviction that they will not be able to do a decent work devoid of favouritism,” he stated.
The NPP has therefore requested for an in-depth investigation into the conduct of the Deputy Regional Minister in order not to meet serious confrontation from the NPP, should the matter recur.
However, Mr. Agyei, who is tipped to contest the Sunyani West Parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NDC in 2016 – after several attempts to win the Sunyani East seat had failed – has defended his action, saying his wife hails from Odumase and so his children have the right to go there to register.
Meanwhile, the EC has withdrawn all the registration officials at the centre following the Monday incident.
The Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of the EC, George Gyabaah, confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that he had ordered the district electoral officer to contact the minister’s kids to retrieve the issued voter ID cards as soon as possible to enable the District Review Committee to adjudicate on the complaints by the party agents.
Mr. Gyabaah also denied claims by the sacked registration officers that there was a shortage of Complaint Forms, saying the EC had supplied all the centres with enough forms.
