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The National Election Security Task Force Committee (NESTF) has identified 3,000 polling centres as flashpoints in the course of the recent limited voter registration exercise.

In a presentation COP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, Director General, Operations, Ghana Police Service – who is the head of the task force – said this figure was recorded out of the 230,000 polling centres opened for the exercise.

He said the Electoral Commission (EC) identified about 7,000 hotspots out of the 29,000 centres during its deliberations but the police also identified 5,003 as against 3,500 in the 2012 elections.

He made this known when the NESTF met with other stakeholders at the police headquarters in Accra to review preparations towards election 2016.The task force was activated on January 20, 2016 to plan for the 2016 elections and it comprises representatives of all security agencies, the ministry of local government, foreign affairs, and the interior.

COP Yohuno said the police would deploy more personnel to the polling and the collation centres, offices of the EC in the districts, regions and the national headquarters to provide security at the identified hotpots.

“330 personnel are currently undergoing risk and weapon training tactics at Pwalugu in the Upper East Region; and additional of 400 will also be trained to further prepare them for any risk situations.

“The risk situation can include armed robbery, rescue operation, terrorism attacks and others,” he revealed.

He said the police administration was going to withdraw all personnel deployed to guard presidential candidates who could not file their nominations at the EC.

The Inspector General of Police, Dr John Kudalor, in an address, said the police would be meeting the Catholic Bishops Conference’, the Christian Council, the Muslim Community and the Charismatic and Pentecostal Council as part of his dialogue series after touring the 11 police regions in the country and  meeting all stakeholders.

Touching on the Suhum, Kukuom and Ajumako violence, IGP Kudalor said more personnel had been deployed there to help deal with the situation as well as the suspects, adding that the Director General of the Legal Department of the Ghana Police Service and his team had been tasked to go to those areas to assist with prosecution of the supposed offenders.

The Minister of Interior, Prosper Douglas Bani, in a statement tasked the police to take action against any political party, groups and individuals that encourage the formation of vigilante groups.