GBARNGA, Bong – Police in Bong have arrested, charged and sent to court, two persons in connection with multiple registration and forgery during the ongoing voter registration process.

Dakana Dennis, aged 22, and Forkpah Mulbah, 32, were arrested separately on February 9 and 21 in Gbarnga and Palala, respectively, according to the police.

The commander of the Crime Services Division of the Bong County Police Detachment, John Kelenso Flomo, told a local radio station (Radio Gbarnga), that the two were arrested following tipoffs.

“For Dakana Dennis, he earlier registered at one center in Gbarnga and moved to another after few days to do another registration with different name,” Flomo told Radio Gbarnga. “It was then that some people who saw him at the previous center alerted the voter registration staffs who later contacted the police.”

Flomo said Mulbah had registered in Palala, Bong, and later moved to River Gee to register under another name.

“Forkpah had the two voter cards in his possession in Palala and [he was] telling people that the [National Elections Commission] does not have the proper mechanism to stop people from doing double registration,” Flomo said.

Dakana Dennis was arrested for registering to vote multiple times. Photo: Moses Bailey

He said some citizens of the community alerted the police about Mulbah’s actions.

Meanwhile, Dennis and Mulbah admitted to committing the crimes and pleaded for forgiveness.

The two men were charged with multiple registration and forgery and sent to court for prosecution.

The National Elections Commission magistrate for Upper Bong, Daniel G. Newland, said NEC is working with state securities and the courts to ensure that violators of the Elections Law are arrested and prosecuted according to law.

“The NEC is also thankful to those citizens who hinted us to have these guys arrested,” Newland said.

He is encouraging citizens to keep watch of the voter registration process in their different communities to ensure that the process is conducted with sincerity.

Meanwhile, Daniel Newland has also announced the closure of two voter registration centers in the third electoral district in Bong County.

He said the two centers have attained NEC’s required 3,000 voters per center benchmark and needed to be closed.

The two centers are located at the Won-A-Nie School in Gbarnga, with center code 06150, and the Gbarnga Sunday Market with center code 06156.

Featured photo by Philip Singbah