By William
Yaw Owusu
Wednesday
July 04, 2018
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has stated that
it will be naïve for anybody or political grouping to hold that President
Akufo-Addo orchestrated the removal of Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC),
Charlotte Osei, and her two deputies, Alhaji Amadu Sulley, and Georgina
Opoku-Amankwah, from office.
The party said some political groupings, especially
the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), who are not in favour of
Charlotte Osei’s sacking, are taking advantage of the situation to incite the
public against the President.
Security
Agencies
Addressing the media on behalf of the party in Accra
yesterday, acting NPP General Secretary, John Boadu, asked the security
agencies to act on what he called ‘potentially treasonable’ comments.
“On the sacking of the former EC officials, it would
take an ignoramus to think and suggest that President Akufo-Addo or the NPP
could have orchestrated their sacking,” Mr. Boadu said.
He said “the NPP has noted rather sadly comments
being made, especially by the opposition NDC and its surrogates in the media
and elsewhere suggesting that His Excellency President Akufo-Addo and the NPP
deliberately masterminded the sacking of the former EC boss, based on which
premise some of them are proceeding to call for civil disobedience and chaos in
the country as a registration of their protest against this development.”
NPP
Condemnation
“The NPP first of all, condemns all such reckless
and potentially treasonable comments and proceeds to call on the police and the
other relevant security agencies to act accordingly as provided by law in order
not to jeopardize the peace and security of this country.”
He said that “we should remind those who genuinely
do not know or pretend to know not that this country is governed by law not
emotions or whims and caprices of individuals,” adding “neither is the country
governed by the wishes of political parties.”
“The 1992 Constitution of Ghana remains the supreme
law of Ghana and as you would all agree, all the processes leading to their
removal from office are in absolute compliance with the provisions of the
Constitution and nothing more, nothing less.”
Public
Knowledge
Mr. Boadu said that it was public knowledge that the
wrangling among the EC bosses was self-inflicted, insisting “it is also a
truism that this whole thing started with internal wrangling involving the
three top EC officials throwing mud at one another with all manner of
accusations and counter-accusations which eventually found expression in
petitions filed by some workers of the Electoral Commission, thereby triggering
Article 146 of the Constitution.”
He said “the President only performed what the
constitution of Ghana enjoins him to perform by first of all, referring such
petitions to the Chief Justice and acting in accordance with the
recommendations of the committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate the
complaints having established a prima facie case.”
“As we all know, it was the CJ’s committee that
recommended the removal of the former chairperson and her two deputies upon
finding them guilty of wrongdoing and for that matter breaches of law and
stated misbehaviour pursuant to Article 146.
At this moment, the President had
absolutely no option but to act in accordance with the committee’s
recommendations else he would be held in breach of the constitution and that
may constitute grounds for his impeachment.”
Mr. Boadu added that “we all owe it a duty to
respect the constitution of our country and nobody is above the laws of Ghana,
not even the President. So if the President himself is subject to the laws of
Ghana, then certainly Charlotte Osei and her deputies cannot be above the laws
and Constitution of Ghana.”
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