President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the Electoral Commission chairperson Charlotte Osei and her two deputies were not dismissed out of hatred.
According to him, he was only following due process and constitutional requirement, having received a recommendation from a legally constituted committee, which investigated them, to sack the trio.
Mrs. Osei and her two Deputies, Mr. Amadu Sulley and Mrs. Georgina Opoku Amankwah were fired over incompetence and misbehavior after a committee constituted by the Chief Justice found them culpable of allegations of procurement breaches among others.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has served notice that it would embark on a nationwide demonstration against the decision arguing that it was “politically orchestrated.”
The government, however, decried attempts to politicise the decision to dismiss Mrs Osei and her deputies, explaining that it was “purely an internally generated matter.”
Speaking about the development for the first time, President Akufo-Addo told a section of the Ghanaian community in Mauritania, where he is attending the AU Summit that he has no ill-feelings towards the dismissed commissioners.
“In the last six months, the committee has been investigating allegations of corruption against Charlotte Osei and her deputies. The committee completed its findings last week and concluded that Charlotte Osei and her two deputies erred,” President Akufo-Addo explained.
He added: “Based on Article 146 (9), the Committee recommended that Charlotte Osei and her deputies should be removed from office…I could not oppose the Committee’s recommendation because I have no such powers…The law requires that I obey the recommendation by the Committee, and that necessitated the dismissal of Charlotte Osei and her deputies… This is our constitution.
“…We all need to understand that Charlotte Osei and her deputies were not dismissed out of hatred or malice. Those who brought the petition were employees of the Electoral Commission, so I plead with Ghanaians to work together to find persons who will be transparent to work as electoral commissioners,” Akufo-Addo stressed.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Osei in a statement said posterity will judge her.
“I prefer to leave the standard and quality of those elections for Ghanaians, history and posterity to judge. I still consider it a great honour and privilege to have been given the opportunity to serve my nation at very high levels during my period in public service.
“I still hold the view and belief that our country deserves an Electoral Commission that is truly independent, unbiased, free, fair and firm, and can fight-off all attempts to politically capture, manipulate, influence and control it. This was always my cardinal objective and my approach to my work. In due time there will be ample opportunity to fully address these matters once and for all,” she said in a statement Friday.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
