National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, has said despite his Ministry’s suspicion of arms stockpiling in an opposition politicians house, no weapons have been found.

“They obviously took them away,” the Minister stuck to intelligence which he said pointed to the presence of arms at a property said to belong to, Delali Kwasi Brempong, an NDC parliamentary candidate in the recent by-election at Ayawaso West Wuogon in the Greater Accra region.

That by-election turned bloody with six hospitalised with some having gunshot injuries. A Commission of Inquiry has been looking into the incident that has attracted for government, widespread condemnation.

Taking his turn as the second witness, Albert Kan-Dapaah said scores of masked men seen near a polling station at La Bawaleshie, an area within the constituency, had not come there for election security purposes.

He disputes concerns that the presence of these masked men with weapons could not have caused fear and panic during the by-election.

He also claimed gunshots heard during the polls were warning shots that did not hurt anybody and suggested the firearm that caused injuries were fired from the house believed to contain ammunition.

The NDC parliamentary candidate in the by-election has vehemently denied keeping weapons within the house.

Photo: Delali Kwasi Brempong has denied keeping arms in his house.

A third witness at the hearing at the Osu Castle in Accra, Minister of State in charge of National Security, Bryan Acheampong, said although some 60 security officials approached the said building, they did not search the property after encountering gunshots from inside the house.

“Nothing should have stopped them from entering,” he told the commissioners. Insisting they failed to complete their mission of finding the arms.

Instead, they arrested nine persons in front of the building and aborted the mission, he said.

Counsel for the commission who interrogated the witness found it curious that 60 men would arrest nine persons in front of a house said to contain arms and then abort the mission.

“It is very, very possible,” the Minister of State said.

The Minister would not call the so-called mission of confirming and retrieving the weapons a failure. He explained, the men took the “best decision” considering the situation on the ground.

But left to him, “they should have gone in and completed their mission.”
Bryan Acheampong said he has been asking himself “a 1,000 times within a week” why no weapons were retrieved from the property.