EC’s stolen BVR kits, laptops: One granted bail, three on remand

An Accra High Court has granted bail to one of the four persons nabbed over the Electoral Commission's stolen laptops and Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits.

Joseph Blankson Adumadzie, a Data Base Administrator, was granted bail by the High Court last week.

Adumadzie's counsel informed the Dansoman Circuit Court that they were yet to serve the High Court proceedings on the Police in order to execute the bail hence the absence of her client in court.

Meanwhile, the three other accused persons were remanded into lawful custody by the Dansoman Circuit Court when the matter was called.

The three accused persons are Philip Tettey, a 26-year-old casual worker, Benjamin Fienyi, a security man, and Clifford Yeboah a student.

At today's proceedings at the Dansoman Circuit Court, Clifford Yeboah's lawyer repeated his application for Yeboah, saying his client walked as a “free man” to court but was lawful remanded by the Court.

According to counsel, Yeboah has forfeited his examinations as a result of the matter and drew the Court 's attention to the High Court bail extended to Adumadzie.

Defence counsel therefore prayed for bail for Yeboah, saying items found on Yeboah have been retrieved and their value was not more than GHC2,000.

Prosecution led by Chief Inspector Christopher Wonder said he was surprised that the High Court had granted bail to one of the accused persons, looking at the nature of the case which was of national interest.

Chief Inspector Wonder objected to the grant of bail by the Circuit Court to the accused persons, saying the Dell Laptop Computers were yet to be retrieved and that the computers contained some bio data and important information.

According to prosecution, investigations are underway and would soon present a “solid Investigations” before the court when granted a few more days.

According to prosecution, it would serve their disclosures on the accused persons and lawyers by the close of the day.

Prosecution explained that it could not get to the EC's officials' office on time and could not finalize their disclosures and serve parties in the case.

The court presided over by Halima Abdul El Lawal Basit has adjourned the matter to May 6, 2024.

Philip Tetteh, a Labourer, Benjamin Fienyi, a security man, and Jospeh Blankson Adamadze, a database Administrator, have been jointly charged with conspiracy to steal and stealing.

Clifford Yeboah, a 23-year-old student, has been charged with dishonestly receiving the equipment.

All the accused persons denied the various charges when they appeared before the Dansoman Circuit Court.

Chief Inspector Wonder said that the complainants were EC officials.

He said on March 9, this year, EC officials (Information Technology Department) commenced regular maintenance of BVR kits.

Chief Inspector Wonder explained that each BVR kit had a laptop computer, scanner, printer, biometric device, and a battery.

The court heard that during the maintenance, it was detected that five dell laptops, belonging to the EC had been stolen out of the set of kits.

Prosecution said a report was made to the National Security, resulting in the arrest of the accused.

He said three HP laptops of the EC were retrieved from Yeboah and a HP printer and three Biometric Verification Device (BVD) were retrieved from Fienyi.

Prosecution told the court that Fienyi and Adamadze planned to steal some printers when the EC in March 2023, engaged its casual workers and security men to remove materials from the commission's warehouse at Ridge (EC old Head office) to a warehouse in Accra.

Chief Inspector Wonder said investigations revealed that Philip Tetteh stole three HP laptops from the kit boxes and gave same to Yeboah to keep and repair.

In the case of Blankson, prosecution said he stole HP Printer from the kits and gave it to Fienyi.

Chief Inspector Wonder said Fienyi also took home three BVD printer chargers.

GNA