Investigate Bechem EC office fire — NDC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on the Ministry of the Interior, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Fire Service and the national office of the Electoral Commission (EC) to speed up the investigations into the fire outbreak at the EC office in Tano South and bring the perpetrators to book.
“We hold the view that this case of suspected arson of the office of the Electoral Commission of the Tano South Municipality may have everything to do with the ongoing electoral dispute in the said constituency,” it said.

A statement signed by the Deputy General Secretary of the party, Mr Peter Boamah Otokunor, said the NDC was convinced that whoever perpetrated the act of arson did so with “a criminal intent calculated at destroying evidence or concealing critical electoral documents containing information that could expose the EC or the other party in the dispute whose electoral fortunes may be grossly affected by such documents and/or information if exposed in open court.”

Fire incident

Confirming the fire incident to the Daily Graphic, the Bechem Municipal Fire Commander, DOI Abraham Tarm-Sackey said several electoral equipment and materials at the EC office had been destroyed.

He mentioned some of the items as computers, verification devices, jackets, tables and chairs gutted by the fire.

DOI Tarm-Sackey said the cause of the fire outbreak was still under investigation.

According to him, the fire which erupted on Sunday, May 23, 2021 at about 8:13 a.m., started at the conference hall of the commission, where all the electoral materials, tools and equipment were kept.

He explained that because the office was constructed with fiber and T&J materials, it took the personnel more than an hour to control the fire.




DOI Tarm-Sackey explained that getting access to the rooms of the building was very difficult because they were locked, “so we were forced to break them to get access to halt further spread of the fire”.

Context
There is an ongoing court case involving the EC, the NPP MP and the NDC 2020 parliamentary candidate for Tano South in the Wenchi High Court.

The NDC parliamentary candidate for Tano South in the 2020 parliamentary elections, Madam Hanna Louisa Bissiw, is challenging the declaration of the NPP candidate, Mr Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere, as the winner of the elections.

Mr Sekyere polled 22,034 representing 52.76 per cent of valid votes cast as against Madam Bisiw’s 19,731 votes, representing 47.24 per cent.

Court process

But in its statement, the NDC noted that the court processes shall involve the inspection of critical election materials and documents relating to the disputed 2020 parliamentary elections in the Tano South Constituency.

It said the party, therefore, considered the fire incident a very unfortunate development, especially as recent preliminary investigations revealed that a match box, a pinch bar and door handles were found at the scene of the fire
outbreak.

“Indeed, credible information of evidential value reveals that the EC building was broken into through the rear door. This undisputed preliminary fact clearly puts the investigation in the direction of a well-calculated case of arson.

“The NDC is convinced that this is yet another clear testimony of a blatant attack on our democracy,” it stated.

Source:www.graphic.com.gh