The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is rallying its supporters to converge at the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra to demonstrate against the dismissal of the boss of the Electoral Commission and her two deputies.
President Nana Akufo-Addo sacked the Chairperson of the Electoral Management Body Charlotte Osei and her two deputies – Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwah – over acts of “misbehavior and incompetence.”
The decision follows a committee’s report into petitions against the three officials. The Committee recommended their removal on the basis of stated misbehavior and incompetence, pursuant to Article 146 (1) of the Constitution.
A statement by Minister for Information, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid on Thursday, said the President had directed the three persons to hand over their respective schedules to the Director of Human Resources at the Commission, while thanking them for their service to the country.
The largest opposition party is demanding “immediate reasons” for Mrs. Osei’s dismissal while asking its rank and file to gather at Obra Spot for a “massive demonstration.”
“It’s very clear that this government has failed,” the National Organiser of the NDC Kofi Adams said at a late night press conference at the party’s headquarters in Accra Thursday.
“Tomorrow [Friday] the anger of the people will be shown on the streets,” he stressed. “Indeed president Akufo-Addo and vice president Mahamudu Bawumia have termite mentality. They are destroying what we’ve built over the years and we will not allow it.”
“We won’t allow them to extend that destruction to the Electoral Commission. We will religiously guide and protect it. We are calling on the religious organisations, the chiefs and queenmothers not to sleep over this matter.
“Enough is enough. They have caused a lot of destruction and we won’t allow them. We are going to demonstrate against this,” Mr. Adams emphasised.
Some concerned workers of the Electoral Commission in July 2017 petitioned the President and the Chief Justice to begin impeachment processes against the Chairperson of the Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei.
They accused Mrs Osei of taking unilateral decisions without recourse to the appropriate departments of the EC, even her deputies.
The group also accused the EC Chair of engaging in fraudulent activities, citing her decision to cancel a contract awarded to Superlock Technologies Limited (STL) to supply and manage Biometric Voter Registration machines (BVRs) and the Biometric Voter Devices (BVDs), as well as her directive for the payment of $76,000 to IT firm, Dream Oval.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
