By William
Yaw Owusu
Saturday,
October 07, 2017
One of the Deputy
Chairpersons of the Electoral Commission (EC) currently embroiled in the
scandal that has hit the commission is chasing the Economic and Organized Crime
Office (EOCO) for causing her interdiction over matters relating to the
commission’s Staff Endowment Fund.
Georgina Opoku
Amakwaa, who is the Deputy EC chairperson in-charge of Corporate Services, is
currently on indefinite leave allegedly on the instructions of the chairperson of
the commission, Charlotte Osei - who herself is being probed by the Chief
Justice for alleged abuse of office.
The deputy EC boss is threatening to take
legal action against EOCO if the investigative body fails to respond to her
queries about the status of its investigations.
Asante-Krobea
Sekyere and Associates, lawyers of Ms Opoku-Amankwa, in a letter dated October
3, 2017 and addressed to EOCO, copied to the Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo, stated
that “we are giving notice of our intention to go to court against your office,
a copy of which has been forwarded to the Attorney-General, whom you claim you have
submitted your report on the investigation to.”
According to the
lawyers, numerous letters written to EOCO to furnish them with the progress of
investigations against their client by the chairperson of the EC had been
ignored without any receipts.
EOCO is
investigating some officials of the EC over the loss of GH¢480,000 from the commission’s
workers’ Endowment Fund.
Ms Opoku-Amakwaa said
she caused her lawyers to write to the EOCO on three different occasions but
the anti-graft body had refused to respond to any of the correspondences.
In a letter of
October 3 to EOCO, a copy of which is in possession of DAILY GUIDE, Ms Opoku-Amakwaa’s
lawyers averred, “It is regrettable that even though all the previous letters
were delivered to your office by our client personally, you have not seen the
need to treat our letters with the requisite courtesy of even acknowledgement,
let alone a reply to same.
“In our last letter
to you dated 28th August, 2017, we requested to know the status of
your investigation into the allegation made against our client by the chairperson
of the EC.” In that same letter, we registered our displeasure towards the way
and manner the office has dealt with our client.”
According to the
lawyers, they had already indicated Ms Opoku-Amankwaa’s “unhappiness with the
instruction issued by the chairperson of the EC to write to our client to
proceed on leave on an allegation made by the same chairperson on a matter that
bordered on the Staff Endowment Fund.”
The lawyers said
they did not understand why Ms Charlotte Osei, against whom some allegations
had also been leveled by some staff of the commission and which are before the
EOCO for investigation, had not been asked to proceed on leave but the investigative
body could cause Ms Opoku-Amankwaa to proceed on leave.
“Since your office
has decided not to respond to our letters we have no other option but to
proceed to court to seek redress for our client and to get your office to
submit to us the status of your investigation into the allegation against our
client, particularly as your action is keeping our client out of office
indefinitely,” Mrs Opoku Amankwaa’s lawyers warned. In July, Mrs. Opoku-Amankwaa,
together with two EC officials - Kwaku Owusu Agyei-Larbi, Chief Accountant and
Joseph Asamaoh, a Finance Officer - were asked to proceed on leave over a
missing GH¢480,000 from the Staff Endowment Fund for the commission’s workers.
A letter from the
EOCO, which was signed by ACP K.K. Amoah (rtd.), Acting Executive Director, said
it had taken over the case, explaining, “The suspects are assisting in investigations.”
In the letter, dated
July 4, 2017, and addressed to the chairperson of the commission, EOCO had said
it was investigating “the loss of about GH¢480,000 from the Endowment Fund at
the Electoral Commission.
“The office would be
grateful if you would direct the officers listed above to proceed on leave
whilst investigation proceeds.”
Pursuant to the EOCO
letter, Madam Charlotte Osei wrote to Mrs Opoku-Amankwaa asking her to proceed
on leave ‘immediately‘ and directed her to “kindly forward any pending issues
to the Office of the Chairperson.”
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