Scene from the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council on Monday, February 17, 2025
The Council of State election for the Ashanti Region is being re-held on Monday, February 17, 2025, after the election was marred by violence on Tuesday, February 11, 2025.
A video shared b Citi FM on X from the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council where the exercise is being held, showed leading figures of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), including former Minister of Education, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum, and former Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong being present.
Ken Agyapong and Dr. Adutwum were captured at the entrance of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council, which had been blocked by personnel of the Ghana Police Service.
The two men appeared not happy about being prevented from entering the venue for the election.
The former Assin Central legislator could be seen muttering some words as he was pointing fingers at some person behind the gate of the building that houses the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council.
He subsequently left the entrance of the building after pointing out his displeasure.
The former education minister, on the other hand, could be seen engaging the police officers who had blocked the entrance.
As Ken Agyapong was leaving, Dr. Adutwum was still engaging the police officers.
The chaos at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council on February 11, 2025, began right after the voting had ended.
A gang of unknown thugs broke into the polling centre and disrupted the sorting and counting of ballots.
Witnesses said the attackers stormed the venue, knocked over tables, destroyed ballot boxes, and scattered voting papers, forcing EC officials to halt the exercise.
Supporters who were upset with the results allegedly started the violence and demanded a review of the outcome.
Although there was a sizeable number of police personnel at the venue, they struggled to contain the situation as tensions flared, prompting a temporary suspension of the election proceedings.
The violent altercation left several media personnel, including GhanaWeb’s Ashanti Regional Correspondent, Gideon Nana Peprah, injured.
Sharing his ordeal with Etsey Atisu, Peprah said that about seven well-built men stormed the venue without provocation and began assaulting electoral officers.
“Built men from nowhere just stormed the place. They stormed the grounds where the electoral officers were doing the sorting and counting. Suddenly, they started scattering everything — the ballots, the prepared ballot papers, and the tally sheets. Then, at some point, they even started attacking themselves, which left us confused as to what was happening,” he narrated.
According to him, while trying to leave the chaotic scene, the men approached and accused him of filming the incident on his phone and demanded that he delete the footage.
“I was attacked by about seven or eight of them. They claimed they saw me taking videos and ordered me to delete them. Before I could react, they seized my phone and overpowered me,” he added.
BAI/EK
Meanwhile, you can also watch the latest Twi news on GhanaWeb TV here:
You can also watch as John Jinapor narrates how National Security took his phone and laptop to the UK in 2017
