Pink sheet EC officials freed

The Attorney Generals (AG’s) Department has freed three officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) who were involved in the infamous ‘Pink Sheet’ scandal in Savelugu in the Northern Region.

Deputy Northern Regional Director of the EC Godfrey Okeley, Akumani Benjamin Akanda, the Savelugu-Nanton District Electoral Officer and Salamatu Osman, a purported service personnel were arrested by angry NPP supporters and handed over to the police in their bid to authenticate some pink sheets on February 17, 2013.

They were immediately taken to the Regional Police Headquarters in Tamale where their statements were taken and later released on self-recognizance bail.

The police indicated that this was to enable them to prepare a docket of the case formally lodged by the NPP. They said they were seeking the advice of the Attorney General, only to be told last week that the matter was not worth prosecuting.

According to the Northern Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Alhaji Mahama Arhin, the Attorney General (AG) served as the lawyer to the prosecutors and they had to respect her legal prowess.

He told DAILY GUIDE that no cogent evidence could be established against the accused persons so the prosecution might not be able to establish that a crime was committed in the case.

Based on this, he said they were directed to free the three EC officials as the case, when put before court, could easily be thrown out.

But Northern regional scribe of the NPP, Dr. Clifford Braimah, has expressed disappointment in the conduct of the AG’s Department, accusing it of bias in dealing with a purely criminal matter.

He told DAILY GUIDE that the matter was worth prosecuting, taking considering the fact that the suspects were tampering with evidence in a case pending before the Supreme Court.

The NPP scribe said the party would advise itself accordingly since it had emerged that the AG’s Department was being selective in the cases it prosecuted. “This is very unfair and a slap in the face of our growing democracy,” he remarked.

It will be recalled that the three EC officials were dragged to the Savelugu police station by aggrieved NPP supporters after news broke that they were in the region combing for presiding officers to sign pink sheets in order to validate them for the EC to open its defence in court.

This move was however scuttled by vigilant members of the NPP who intercepted 15 of the unsigned pink sheets from Salamatu Osman in the Savelugu-Nanton district.

According to the visibly shaken Salamatu, she was carrying out the orders of her boss who requested her to personally invite presiding officers of 18 polling stations in Savelugu and 11 from Nanton.

Her boss, Akumani Benjamin Akanda, in his statement to the police confirmed that and said it was on the instructions of the deputy regional electoral officer through a text message.

The Regional Director of the EC, Sylvester Kanyi, when contacted, denied sanctioning such an assignment and wondered who could have.

But aggrieved supporters of the NPP, who would not take any of that, insisted it was a deliberate ploy by the EC to cover up its misdeeds, alleging that presiding officers were paid to sign the sheets.

The timely intervention by the police saved the situation as NPP members almost pounced on Mr Akanda for his alleged roles in the elections they claimed were fraudulent.

The three were later transferred to Tamale under the guise of being prosecuted only to be finally absolved of any crime last week by the Attorney General’s Department.