An ex-officer with the Ghana Armed Forces who is now visually impaired, Christian Humphery Kwaku Agbeviade and 14 others who were arrested in Kpetoe for allegedly crossing from Togo to participate in the ongoing Voter Registration exercise illegally have been granted bail.
The 15 were picked up after the Hyundai bus they were travelling on was stopped by some known New Patriotic Party (NPP) executives in the Agortime Ziope Constituency.
All 15 suspected to be foreigners were handed over to the police for further investigation. They were subsequently granted bail after residents who claim to know the suspects mobbed the police station to demand their release.
The situation escalated when some youth started throwing stones on the roof of the police station amidst chanting war songs.
It took the interventions of Member of Parliament for the area, Charles Agbeve, the NDC’s Deputy Volta Regional chairman and Secretary, George Loh and James Gunu and other NDC MPs to calm the irate youth.
The former Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Christian Agbeviade in a Citi News interview said there was no proper explanation on their arrest but the police have asked them to report again on Monday, July 6, 2020.
The leader of the Volta Caucus in Parliament and MP for Ho West, Emmanuel Bedzrah decried what he said appears “to be a form of intimidation from the ruling New Patriotic Party”.
Mr. Bedzrah warned that such acts of intimidation will not augur well for peaceful coexistence among members of the NDC and the NPP in the Volta Region.
Some residents who gathered at the Police station could not hold back their tears as the aged suspects were granted bail.
The MP for the area, Charles Agbeve who organized the bus to convey the aged suspects said he “was only helping the aged from his own hometown (Honugo) in the Agortime Ziope District to be able to register at the Agortime Ziope District Electoral Office.
He expressed disgust at the arrest and called for circumspection in the application of the law in order not to create the impression that the NPP is “gagging Voltarians away from the registration centres in an effort to disenfranchise them”.
