Church services held in Sunyani on Saturday

Sunyani, Dec 6, GNA - Some churches in Sunyani held services on Saturday so that their members can exercise their franchise early on Sunday. At the Living Grace Ministry, the service was devoted to prayers for the nation to go through the elections successfully. The Reverend Dr. Richard Owusu Akyeaw, General Overseer, asked Ghanaians to discard all fears about any violence in the elections, which would be peaceful to the glory of God. He urged Ghanaians to continue to be thankful to God for the continued peace in the country as well as the new leadership that would emerge from the elections.

"Ghana is our only country and we need to be one united and to love one another with a common understanding," he said, and appealed to Ghanaians not to allow partisan politics to divide them. The general overseer stressed that "Ghana has a history that challenges other African countries and the world" and urged the citizenry not to destroy such integrity because of elections.

In another development the Brong-Ahafo regional office of the New Patriotic Party has for the past four days provided free transportation to more than 8,000 eligible voters, irrespective of party affiliation, to their regions to exercise their franchise in their respective constituencies.

Mr Alfred Ofori Annye, Regional Youth Organizer, told the Ghana News Agency on Saturday that, majority of the people transported were youth from various tertiary institutions who could not transfer their votes.

He explained that though the party affiliations of the beneficiaries were not known the party found it expedient to assist the eligible voters, as Ghanaians, to cast their votes as a civic right. Mr Annye said so far eight buses of the Metro Mass Transit Company had been commandeered to undertake the exercise, the cost borne by the NPP regional office.

During a visit to Nana Bosoma Market in Sunyani, the Ghana News Agency witnessed a large number of travellers, mostly to Kumasi who had besieged the Metro Mass Transit station in long queues to catch a bus. An official at the station who declined her identity said since last week the station had been overwhelmed with the number of travellers besieging the station to travel to their various towns, notably Kumasi, Berekum and Nkoranza.

"The number of travellers has so increased that we are experiencing shortage of buses at the station," she said.

Some of the travellers the GNA spoke to explained that they had to travel to their towns because they could not transfer their votes. Koduah Agyemang, a student of Sunyani Polytechnic, said: "I have to go to Kumasi to cast my vote tomorrow because I cannot vote on transfer".

Asare Baffour, also a student of the institution said he was travelling to Kumasi to be a polling agent.

Last Thursday banks in Sunyani were besieged by lost of customers, most of whom wanted to withdraw monies, ostensibly either because of the elections or the long weekend.

Those who could not hold on to the long wait at the banking hall returned home disappointed.

Meanwhile, Osahene Boakye Djan, an independent parliamentary candidate in Jaman South Constituency has called for police investigations to arrest an unidentified person who 'shit-bombed' his office at Drobo.

He explained to the Ghana News Agency on phone that on Friday when all political campaigning ceased at around 1700 hours he retired to his home.

Osahene Djan said he later received information from his landlord that his office had been shit-bombed by an unidentified person who came down from a pick-up vehicle and poured the contents of a black bucket and a polythene bag in front of his office.

The candidate said the watchman at the office who informed the landlord about the incident said he could not identify the perpetrator because it was early dawn between 0300 hours and 0400 hours. "I suspect foul play," Osahene Djan said. 6 Dec. 08