Voters registration: Retired Military man, 14 others intercepted as Togolese in Volta Region

A 70 year old retired Ghana Arm Forces Officer, Christian Agbeviade together with some 14 aged residents from Ziope and Honuga, a farming communities in the Agortime-Ziope District of the Volta region has been intercepted on their way to register for the voter identification card by Volta Executives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by the region's Chairman, Kafui Woanya.

The persons were detained upon reaching Kpetoe township, the district capital and were sent to the Agortime-Ziope District Police Command where they spent more ten hours under police custody before their release after a massive protest by residents and interventions by Executives of the Volta National Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to the retired Military man who is visually impaired, a relative to the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Charles Agbeve, on Sunday, 5 July 2020, he was on board with other siblings who are of age to Kpetoe, where the Electoral Commission office is located to get registered for the ongoing voter registration exercise before their interception.

He explained that, he could not see the persons who arrested them but heard that they have been charged for not being Ghanaians and that they were been conveyed from Togo into the country to register for the voter card. He said, he showed his passport to prove his citizenship, as well as the other persons on board but the Police could not listen to his plea.

"They claimed I'm a Togolese, and I said I can't be a Togolese, with a Ghanaian passport how can I be a Togolese. How can I be a Togolese at the same time a Ghanaian? I've worked with the Ghana Arm Forces, can they employ an alien in the Ghana Arm Forces? These are some of my explanations to them so I don't know why they still don't want to believe what I'm saying, I have a living document to prove to that effect" He told Class News after being released from the Police custody as at 8:34 pm, the evening of Sunday.

The Volta NDC Secretary, James Gunu, speaking to the media after the incident which nearly resulted into a scuffle between the police and the angry residents said the persons were only doing according to the directives by the EC and it's a shock to have seen the NPP changing the narratives.

"The fact of the matter is that, the Electoral Commission made us to understand that, at the District registration offices, lactating mothers, persons with disability, the aged and the vulnerable in a society they are supposed to be registered at the district offices.... so these people boarded a car from Ziope, NPP people saw them and said they are not Ghanaians. NPP should not give frivolous definition to who a Ghanaian is, that also not withstanding if they have any course to believe that somebody is not a Ghanaian, the law is that you go and fill a challenge form, you don't prevent the people physically as they're doing and when we came here we have realized clearly that, the rule of law has been thrown to the dogs, now what we have is the rule of politics" He said.

The MP for the area, Charles Agbeve, disclosed that, he bused the people whom are his relatives from the village to the district office to get registered before the they were intercepted.

He described the development as a bias shown by the NPP and the Police, adding that the situation will not intimidate them rather will encourage the constituents to come out in their numbers to register.

"This one, my own village, my own hometown, my uncle Christian Agbeviade who has worked with the Ministry of defence, and his brothers and sisters, cousins and I said oh let me help you and they carried them, coming to come and register. Today I don't know whether in Ghana any group of people find in an ovan bus approaching a town are Togolese, to begrudged with cars and intimidated, harassed and brought to the Police station and kept all this time. I don't think it is fair, I don't think it is reasonable, in my opinion it is very a rational. And this decision they (NPP) have taken will not intimidate us, we are not perturbed, we have energised, gingered and the people will come out in their numbers and register" he noted.

MP for Ho West, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah at the Police station told the Media that, the Volta region belongs to the NDC hence any attempt by the NPP to bring uneasiness in the region won't be tolerated. He advised constituents to come out in their numbers to get registered.

Meanwhile, the occupants of the bus, 6 males and 8 females were been granted bail including the 56 year old driver, Gatsi Xorlali, who alleged that, he was physically assaulted during the course of intercepting his car. He noted that, he is a driver on the Ho, Akatsi road and he took the alleged foreigners at Ziope enroute to Kpetoe as at 11am on Sunday before the disturbances.

The Police said, an investigation will commence on Monday, 6 July 2020, by visiting individual homes of all the 15 persons.