Officials of the Ghana Immigration Service have charged Belgian woman and Spokesperson for the New Force, for forging records to acquire a residential permit in Ghana.
According to a case filed at the Kaneshie District Court on Wednesday, Ms. Shalimar Abbiusi is accused of falsely declaring she is a student at the Ghana Christian University College to facilitate her student residential permit.
“Investigations revealed that the accused first came to Ghana on the 4th Fourth of September, 2017 through the Kotoka International Airport and has since been a regular visitor to the country until 2018 when she became a resident following her supposed admission as a student of the Ghana Christian University College.
“Checks from the College reveals that accused has never been a student. The documents purportedly issued by the college to support her application for residence permit are forged,” the criminal charge stated.
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But her group is fighting those claims, saying in a statement that the action by authorities amounts to a political witch-hunt and unlawful detention of Ms. Abbiusi.
They say her residence was searched without a warrant after she was called in for questioning by the National Investigations Bureau on Monday.
“During these four days, the security officials have continuously questioned Ms. Abbiusi about the New Force and wanting to know which people are behind it and if the people want to run for President.
“Over this period she has been denied access to legal representation, subjected to an unlawful search of her premises, and held beyond the legal 48-hour limit without formal charges,” the New Force said in a statement yesterday.
Although Ghana’s laws encourage multi-party democracy, authorities say they are investigating to “unravel the full scale of the issue surrounding the emergence of the new political group dubbed The New Force” – perhaps owing to the mysterious way the group launched its presence.
Excerpt for an introductory video and a billboard of a masked man across Accra, much is not known about the group. But there are speculations that it is spearheaded by Ghanaian businessman Nana Kwame Bediako, widely known as Cheddar, to ostensibly become a third force in Ghana’s political party space.