Hwidiem: Macho men assault cop at registration centre

A senior police officer was on Saturday May 7, 2016 assaulted by heavily built men at a registration centre at Hwidiem in the Asutifi South District of the Brong Ahafo Region.

Chief Inspector Broni Acheampong, speaking to Nana Ama Agyarko on Accra News on the same day after the incident, said as part of security measures for the ongoing limited voter registration exercise, he had detailed some police officers to all registration centres in the area in the morning.

He explained that he received a call from some junior officers at one polling station to help ease the confusion that was brewing following the decision by some persons allied to the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) to prevent students from a high school there from being registered. The students had allegedly been beaten with whips and sent back to their schools, without getting their names on the electoral roll.

According to him, he thus went to the school and resolved all issues with the school authorities, who allowed the students to return to the same polling station to have their details taken.

But some macho men arrived at the scene, persons he said had been brought there by one Naaba – the brother of Local Government Minister Collins Dauda – and exchanged words with him for allowing the students to return to the registration grounds. Chief Inspector Broni said one of the thugs slapped him and the goons subsequently took off in a getaway vehicle.

Chief Inspector Broni revealed he had sought treatment in hospital following the attack for severe pains in the neck and face.

No one has been arrested yet but he assured that the police were conducting investigations to bring the culprits to book.