All the 19 members of the Sagnarigu District Assembly who signed a petition seeking to impeach the District Chief Executive Mariama Iddirisu for gross arrogance and establishing dictatorship were hauled before the overlord of Tamale, Gupke Naa Alhassan Abdulai over the weekend and have dropped the intent, just three days to the day the embattled DCE was expected to file her responds for the impeachment process.
The chief and his elders reportedly heaped pressure on the assembly members and compelled them to drop their unwavering intent to remove the DCE from office after she offered an apology and showed remorse last Friday.
Mariama, 32, a rookie District Chief Executive became desperately hot after more than half of the assembly members presented a petition to the presiding member to trigger Section 243, clause 3 of the 1992 constitution and 20, clause 4(a) of the local government Act 936 of 2016, after accusing her of actions they deemed possessed great menace to the development and progress of the district.
The assembly members through the petition directed the presiding member to file a formal motion for vote of No Confidence to commence the impeachment process of the DCE who they had wanted to oust from office for bad administrative conduct and stiff personal deportment.
Among other serious charges, she was also accused of lack of coordination between her and management of the assembly, hijacking and taking control of a vehicle provided for monitoring special (RING) projects in the district and undermining some arms of the assembly including the District Coordinator.
The DCE has also clashed with the coordinator many times and disagreed severally over number of policies which has created an increasing administrative chaos in the district where pregnant women continue to suffer over poor roads.
The Presiding Member Awal Mohammed responded to the petition following its gravity and informed the DCE to respond to the charges within a week period which elapsed yesterday, Tuesday, August 8, 2017 on which he was expected to file the motion for the impeachment process to kick start.
However, as time ticked away closer to the fateful day with the daily drip of more damning charges and dizzying revelations about her relationship with staff of the assembly, and realizing her appointment was in serious jeopardy, Mariama who had boasted of having stronger ties with leading figures of the New Patriotic Party sought refuge at the bosom of chiefs and cried out to them for succor.
StarrNews sources said the DCE initially went to the chief of Sagnarigu and rejected the allegations against her and after offering political reasons for the action of the assembly members, she begged the chief to intervene. The sub-chief then forwarded the request of the beleaguered DCE to the Overlord of Tamale following the nature of the situation, the sources added.
The Overlord after listening to desperate pleas of nearly the entire household and close associates of the under-fire DCE agreed to meddle in the democratic process of the assembly and immediately summoned the assembly members to an emergency meeting where they dropped the charges and annulled the petition.
The Presiding member confirmed the decision of the assembly members to StarrNews after the meeting and explained how the new twist unfolded.
“I received a petition as the presiding member on the 4th of this month (August), the following day I also wrote to the DCE to also respond within one week; Just in the afternoon of yesterday, I was called by His Royal Highness, the Gekpe Naa; that he wanted to have a meeting with all assembly members of the district which was held today at Disability Centre opposite Tamale Sports Stadium. In fact, the purpose of the meeting was to listen to both the assembly members and the District Chief Executive. He listened to assembly members in the presence of the DCE and when it came to her term to also narrate her side of the issue, remorseful, she said that all what the assembly members allege were something she has admitted and she is going to learn and such mistake would not be repeated”
“So based on this, as human as we are, we also do mistake sometime. The members decided to temper justice with mercy. Unanimously it was agreed that she has remorsefully admitted and decided to do the corrections and it would not be repeated, since we are human beings we should temper justice with mercy”, Awal told StarrNews in a telephone interview.
StarrNews sources said the DCE lost her bullying voice and maintained a false composure throughout the engagement where she was chastised in a torn reserved for delinquents and that attacked the dignity of the office she occupies. She only incoherently begged profusely for clemency when offered the opportunity to address the angry assemble members.
She promised to stop her overbearing manner towards the assembly members, pledged to return the RING vehicle to monitoring officers of the assembly and assured a good working relationship with the coordinating director and all staff.
The members had initially appeared adamant but the presence of the revered overlord forced the bitter pill down their throats and they reluctantly accepted to nullify the petition and guaranteed to work with the DCE whose personal conducts just three months into office have defied predictions and shocked party members.
