Wa East Assembly cancels last quarter meeting

The 3rd ordinary meeting of the Wa East District Assembly was cancelled following a motion raised by some members that the session was not properly convened.

Mr. Yakubu Salifu, Assembly Member of the Manwe Electoral Area, who raised the motion said the meeting violated the standing orders of the Assembly and should be cancelled for the right procedures to be followed.

He said the standing orders stated that Assembly Members must be given between 12 to 14 days notice before an ordinary session was convened.

He blamed the Assembly's Secretarial Unit for the lapses and said members were given only five days notice to attend the meeting.

He said the first and second ordinary sitting of the assembly also violated the standing orders but noted that this time round things must be done properly.

Mr. Salifu alleged that since the inception of the Assembly in November 2006, its sub-committees had not been meeting to make inputs due to short notices given them to attend ordinary sessions.

Mr. Joe Bolibie, Presiding Member of the assembly asked the members to put the motion to voting and 13 members voted in favour, while eight voted against it.

Mr. Bolibie therefore, cancelled the meeting and asked the Secretarial Unit to reschedule the meeting at the appropriate time.

Madam Winifred Bawa Dy-Yakah, Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, who now runs the affairs of the assembly expressed her gratitude that democracy was now performing at its best at the grassroots level.

She apologised to the members for the development and expressed the hope that the members would endeavour to complete their sub-committee reports and hand them over to the Secretarial Unit.