Election Materials arrive in Cape Coast under tight Security, Police liaise with Media

Election materials have arrived at the Police Headquarters in Cape Coast under tight security ahead of the December 7 polls.

According to the Central Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kofi Adu, all stakeholders including the party executives and electoral commission officials had inspected the materials, which had been kept under lock and key with twenty-four hour protection.

With sixteen days to the presidential and parliamentary general elections, the police have declared every constituency in the Central Region a hotspot and assured to intensify security during the elections.

Speaking to the media in Cape Coast, the Police Commander urged media practitioners to be guided in their reportage.

Further, DCOP Kofi Adu admonished reporters to not incite the public through exagerated reports but collaborate with the police in a bid to ensure peaceful elections.

He disclosed that every accredited media person would be assigned a liaison officer who would liaise with the reporter in times of need.

“You are going to have liaison officers which would be appointed from the police Intelligence Unit to liaise with the media so that when you have any security issues, the media would channel it through the appointed liaison officer, who would in turn share the information with the Regional Command”.

“We don’t want a situation where the media would take the law into its hands and address some security issues by itself”.

DCOP Adu urged Journalists to discuss all security matters with the liaison officer assigned to them.

He cautioned media Personnel with no accreditation to avoid speculating false information.

“We want to deal with you in a professional manner so don’t make our work difficult. Only the EC accredited Journalists and media houses would be allowed to cover the elections. They should display their EC accredited cards at all times and they must be fair and impartial in their reportage”, he stressed.

The Central Regional Police Commander admonished the media to report on facts.

Adding, “If the information you share to the public is not factual, it might result in violence”.

DCOP Kofi Adu therefore assured the electorate in the Central Region of the police’ readiness to protect them during the elections and subsequently advised them to go about the elections devoid of violence.