Call For My Resignation Is Premature - Jawula

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Health, Alhaji M.N.D. Jawula, has described as premature the call on him by the Head of the Civil Service to resign his post for appearing in NPP regalia at a political party rally.

He argued that the provisions that the Civil Service boss referred to only applied to officials who registered to contest political offices and did not demand resignation “for appearing at a place where political activity is taking place”.

Reacting to the issues raised by the Head of the Civil Service, Alhaji Jawula said the Supreme Court gave a definite ruling on the matter on November 14, 2000 and that his appearance at the rally did not constitute action being taken to contest any election.

The Supreme Court, on November 14, 2000, had dismissed the case brought before it by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which had sought an order of interim injunction to restrain the National Democratic Congress (NDC) from fielding Mr Kofi Opoku-Manu, the then Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, and Mr Joseph Oteng-Adjei, the Director of Energy at the then Ministry of Mines and Energy, as its parliamentary candidates in the December 2000 elections in so far as they remained in office as senior civil servants.

Alhaji Jawula said he was very much aware of that verdict because he was then working with Mr Opoku-Manu at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and that the verdict of the Supreme Court superseded the Civil Service Code of Conduct, which he said was more of a moral issue than legal.

He, however, gave the assurance that if he should get the nod to be selected as Nana Akufo-Addo's running mate to run for the second highest office in the country, he would apply the moral injunction on himself and resign even before his name appeared on any document of the Electoral Commission or the political party.

The 2000 NPP writ had also sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining Messrs Opoku-Manu and Oteng-Adjei from standing as parliamentary candidates in so far as they were ineligible to be Members of Parliament (MPs).

The writ said the NDC put forward the two candidates to contest the December 2000 parliamentary elections in the Asante-Akyem North and Bosomtwe constituencies, respectively, in contravention of the 1992 Constitution.

The court, in a 3-2 decision, upheld a preliminary objection raised by Mr Martin Amidu, the then Deputy Attorney-General, challenging the court's jurisdiction to hear the case and dismissed the application.

Mr Amidu made reference to the 1992 Constitution and said it was abundantly clear that the Supreme Court could not hear the case.

According to him, since no election had been conducted, no cause of action had arisen in any court, let alone to evoke an intervention by the Supreme Court.

Mr Amidu further submitted that on the representation of PNDC Law 284, the qualification of a person to be a candidate was different from the qualification or the eligibility of a candidate to be an MP.

He said in the case of Messrs Opoku-Manu and Oteng-Adjei, the NPP were only relying on speculations from newspaper reports.

He, however, informed the court that as of the commencement of the case, Mr Opoku-Manu had resigned his position as the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, while Mr Oteng-Adjei was not a civil servant but a public servant.

For his part, counsel for the NPP in that case, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, associated himself with the call to strike out the action against Mr Opoku-Manu on the grounds that information reaching him indicated that he had resigned from office and ceased to be a civil servant.

On the substantive case itself, Nana Akufo-Addo said the NPP only sought the enforcement of a provision of the Constitution and not an interpretation.

He said the bone of contention was for the court to determine who was eligible or not to stand for election.

Members of the Supreme Court panel who heard the case were Mrs Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo, Mr Justice F.Y. Kpegah, Mr Justice W. Atugubah, Mr Justice A.K.B. Ampiah and Mr Justice G.K. Acquah.

Story by Mark-Anthony Vinorkor