MMDCE nominees: Deal with lawless NPP rioters surgically – Prof. Adei

A former rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Adei, has called on the security agencies to deal with supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) who go on the rampage to destroy state property because their preferred candidate was not appointed as a Metropolitan, Municipal or District Chief Executive (MMDCE).

A group of angry supporters of the NPP have been destroying state property in protest of what they consider as the snubbing of their preferred candidates by the president in his appointments.

In the Tema Central constituency, the angry youth locked up the party’s office after President Nana Akufo-Addo nominated Yohane Armah Ashitey as the Metropolitan Chief Executive.

Members of the group preferred Charles Boateng for the job.

The group said the president must reward their hardworking preferred candidate.

Similar disturbances happened in the Odododiodoo constituency in the Greater Accra and Chereponi in the North East Region.

In Chereponi, the police arrested 12 for rioting.

Reacting to these developments in an exclusive interview on the Class Morning Show on Class91.3FM, Prof Adei said such lawlessness must not be allowed to go unpunished.

He told show host Kofi Oppong Asamoah: “In this nation, we must be very careful because people have arrogated to themselves the tendency to do things they want”.

He said: “So long as the current Constitution prevails, the president has the sole prerogative to appoint a DCE and metropolitan assembly mayors and, therefore, he doesn’t have to answer to anybody”.

“In fact, I was quite surprised that he took so long in a second term for this to happen”.

“I’m told they wanted to consult people and other things and that is an internal party politics”.

“But I can see that some NPP people, to them, this is their last chance under Akufo-Addo”, he observed, adding: “Even if there’s another NPP government, it is not going to be Akufo-Addo, by law, but that does not give anybody the right to demonstrate, to burn tyres and I think that it is absolute lawlessness and they must be dealt with surgically”.

“You cannot have this situation of lawlessness”.

---classfmonline