Step aside – PPP to EC commissioners

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) is demanding that all the Commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC) step aside for investigations to be conducted into the allegations and counter-allegations between the Chairperson Mrs. Charlotte Osei and her deputies, Georgina Opoku Amankwa and Amadu Sulley.
Mrs. Osei is being accused for “single-handedly” dishing out contracts without recourse to the Public Procurement Act by some unidentified staff of the commission.
She is also accused of providing an estimate of one million Ghana cedis for the renovation of her house.
Mrs. Osei in her response accused her deputies of gross insubordination, corruption and arrogance.
In a statement, the PPP stated that “all the Commissioners must willingly offer to step aside to prepare the grounds for a Commission Of Enquiry to be set up to investigate the allegations and to put the troubling matters to rest
According to the PPP, “the issues raised in the allegations are serious enough to merit further interrogation.
“For instances the allegations of unilateral decisions taken by Commissioners in matters involving the future lives of fellow Ghanaians without recourse to the larger Commission is dangerous. As also matters of financial malfeasance against the public purse by Commissioners cannot surely be overlooked.”
Below is the full statement by PPP
EC COMMISSIONERS MUST STEP ASIDE FOR AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION
The Progressive People’s Party has monitored with dismay the current allegations and counter allegations by the Commissioners of the Electoral Commission of Ghana and find this very worrying.
We therefore advise that all the Commissioners must willingly offer to step aside to prepare the grounds for a Commission Of Enquiry to be set up to investigate the allegations and to put the troubling matters to rest.
Such a Commission should also be in a position to advise the next steps.
The Electoral Commission is one of the most sensitive institutions in the country and we cannot therefore allow these allegations to fester unduly. The potential for these to disturb the peace which we are currently enjoying in this country is immense.
We believe the issues raised in the allegations are serious enough to merit further interrogation.
For instances the allegations of unilateral decisions taken by Commissioners in matters involving the future lives of fellow Ghanaians without recourse to the larger Commission is dangerous. As also matters of financial malfeasance against the public purse by Commissioners cannot surely be overlooked.




The Commissioners should therefore voluntarily step aside or be compelled to step aside in order to begin the process to clean up the quagmire which has apparently now engulfed the Institution charged with the responsibility for ensuring the peaceful transitions and dynamics of our chosen governance systems.
We urge and encourage the President to take due cognizance of what the Constitution allows in these matters (relating to such petitions) and to apply it without fear or favour. No citizen is above the law.
Any half-hearted efforts by President Akuffo Addo perceived as meant to delay the constitutional course as laid down, will send unwanted signals to the chagrin of law abiding Ghanaians, who feel let down by the rot in which the EC Commissioners themselves have told us they now wallow in.
We further implore Ghanaians to resist the attempt by the NPP and NDC to politicize this matter. We need to ensure probity and accountability in our public institutions.
The allegations as witnessed by all are not emanating from either the NDC or NPP; but by the workers of the commission and the commissioners themselves.
We cannot therefore afford to trivialize these matters on the altar political victimization.
Murtala Mohammed
(PPP, National Secretary)

Source:Starrfmonline