The Ashanti Regional Police Command has unveiled plans to mount road blocks and conduct snap checks for guns.
Commissioner of Police (COP) Nathan Kofi Boakye, the Regional Commander, said they had gathered that some people had been carrying weapons and ammunitions on their vehicles, ahead of the next week’s general election.
He dropped the hint at a meeting held by the regional elections taskforce with key stakeholders in Kumasi.
He warned that they would not hesitate to arrest anybody found with either registered or unregistered weapons in their vehicles.
COP Boakye, who chairs the taskforce reiterated its decision, banning the use of motorcycles within 100 metres radius of a polling centre, and said any offender would be apprehended.
He said these steps had been taken in the best interest of the society – to ensure that the election was conducted peacefully in the region.
The use of guns to intimidate voters at polling centres, motorcycles to snatch ballot boxes, massing up of people at the centres and intimidation by political opponents, he said had been identified as major challenges that needed to be tackled.
He underlined the readiness of the security agencies to deal firmly and decisively with any threat to the peace on voting day.
They would work within their mandate to ensure that the election was conducted peacefully across all the 5,190 polling centres in the region.
COP Boakye repeated that no voter would be intimidated or terrorized and urged everybody to get right with the law.
He indicated that they had gathered all the vital logistics required to efficiently discharge their duties and vowed that they would not disappoint.
Mr. Serebour Quaicoe, the Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), told the meeting that all the necessary election materials and equipment had been dispatched to the 47 constituencies.
He said the EC was doing everything to ensure that the materials were delivered at the polling stations on time on voting day.
Mr. Quaicoe said they also had enough supplies and backups for smooth and uninterrupted poll.
Source: GNA
