By Beatrice Oppon
Four persons, including three staff of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC), have been remanded for allegedly stealing laptops and Biometric Verification Devices belonging to the Commission.
The three workers of the EC are a Data Base Administrator, Joseph Blankson Adumadzie; a Security Officer, Benjamin Fienyi; and a Casual Worker Philip Tettey.
The fourth accused person, Clifford Yeboah, is a student. The three EC staff have been charged with conspiracy to steal, stealing. Clifford also faces a charge of dishonestly receiving.
They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Prosecutor Chief Inspector Christopher Wonder prayed the Court to remand the accused persons to enable further investigations. He said the police are yet to retrieve more of the alleged stolen laptops which contain serious data. He said only three laptops have so far been retrieved from the accused persons.
The facts before the court are that on March 9, 2024, officials from the ICT Department of the EC conducted routine maintenance on the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits. Chief Inspector Wonder explained that each of the kit boxes contain a laptop computer, printer, scanner, battery and biometric device.
He said during the maintenance, the officials detected that five of the Laptop computers had been stolen from their kit boxes. He said a complaint was lodged with the National Security, whose investigations led to the arrest of the four accused persons.
Chief Inspector Wonder said three laptops have been retrieved from Clifford with a printer, three Biometric Verification Device printer chargers also retrieved from Benjamin.
The prosecutor said investigations conducted revealed that in March 2023, the EC engaged its casual workers and security men to remove some materials from its warehouse at the old head office at Ridge to the Commission’s warehouse at Spintex in Accra.
Chief Inspector Wonder said Joseph and Benjamin then allegedly conspired to steal some of the printers. Furtherance to their plan, Joseph allegedly stole a printer from one of the kit boxes and handed it over to Benjamin.
The prosecutor said Benjamin allegedly also stole three Biometric Verification Device (BVD) printer chargers and sent them home. Philip is alleged to have stolen three laptop computers, which he gave to Clifford to keep and repair two for him. The case was adjourned to April 29.
