Assin North by-election: no one has been shot

The Ghana Police has stated that contrary to allegations that vehicles and people were shot at Assin North today during the by-election, nothing of that nature has occurred.

However, there were few incidents recorded during the election and have been handled well with a few arrests made. The service said enough personnel are on the ground and properly stationed across the constituency to handle any incidents.

According to the police, “All the recorded incidents are being investigated and Police have also arrested some suspects who are in custody assisting our investigation”.

A statement from the police said “Voting within the Assin North Constituency commenced this morning and progressed as expected in all polling stations across the Constituency.

“The Police, however, recorded pockets of incidents, including an alleged incident of an individual shooting into the air. We wish to state that no person or vehicle has been shot at within the constituency. All the recorded incidents are being investigated and Police have also arrested some suspects who are in custody assisting our investigation.

“Adequate Police personnel have been deployed throughout the constituency to ensure security, law and order for the remaining period of the election and beyond.

“We would like to urge all stakeholders to redouble their commitment to work with the Police to ensure a peaceful election especially as the exercise draws to a close.”

NDC accuses NPP at Assin North

Meanwhile, observers with ties to the NDC have vehemently maintained that there were shootings by the NPP. They said people have been trying to cause chaos and were led by Chairman Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional chairman of the NPP.

“I am an observer for the NDC, and we came here and met some people here trying to cause mayhem, so we tried to calm the situation down. Later, we saw some force coming, and Wontumi was leading them and trying to command his guys to go and beat up someone. They started firing guns and started beating the guy afterwards,” one said as reported by Citinews.

However, the General Secretary of the NPP thinks otherwise and also points fingers at the NDC for trying to intimidate its members. “Look at the statistics. This is the stronghold of the NPP, so people want to scare voters. There is tension in all of the NPP’s strongholds, and so this is a creation by the opposition to scare off voters. Surprisingly, there is no tension in the NDC’s strongholds.”