ICU Crisis Still Raging

The leadership crisis that rocked the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) Ghana seems not to be over, following a writ filed at the Accra Fast Track High Court by two local union members against the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the ICU and five other executive members.

The two members are seeking an injunction to restrain the defendants from acting in any capacity or official position within the ICU until the determination of the writ.

The plaintiffs are further seeking a declaration that the formation of the IMC by the defendants was illegal, unconstitutional and in violation of the ICU constitution.

The plaintiffs are Mr Dave Agbenu, the Secretary of the Professional and Managerial Staff of the New Times Corporation, and Mr George Foster Amanor, the Secretary of the Local Union of Polytank Ghana Limited.

Those affected by the writ are Mr Oteng Asamoah and Mr Peter Mensah Jimpetey-Djan, both members of the ICU and its National Executive Council; Mr Gilbert Awinongya, the Deputy Secretary General (Operations), Mr Solomon Kotei, Deputy Secretary General (Administration), and Mr Theophilus Tenkorang, Second National Trustee, all of the ICU.

The plaintiffs are further seeking a declaration that a resolution dated August 2, 2007 and signed by Oteng Asamoah and Jimpetey-Djan purported to have been passed and issued for and on behalf of the National Executive Council of the ICU was false, fraudulent and in flagrant breach of the constitution of the ICU.

Consequently, they are seeking an order to annul and strike out as unlawful, the said resolution and the IMC, together with all acts and decisions whatsoever taken by or emanating from the defendants in the name of the ICU, including a circular dated August 20, 2007 and a memorandum dated August 21, 2007 as unauthorised, void and of no effect.

The plaintiffs are further seeking a declaration that all the constitutionally elected national officers of the ICU (excluding the defendants), notably the National Chairman, Mr A.Y.B. Salifu; the National Vice Chairman, Mrs Dorothy Mensah; the General Secretary, Mr Napoleon Kpoh, and the First National Trustee, Madam Christiana Baidoo, should continue in office in positions held prior to August 2, 2007 until the 8th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the ICU was duly held.

They are further seeking an order that Gilbert Awinongya, Solomon Kotei and Theophilus Tenkorang and all other persons appointed to positions by them who had, since August 2, 2008, been holding office illegally as chairman and members of the IMC render accounts of their dealings with resources and assets of the ICU, which they had wrongfully accessed and appropriated from the date of their unlawful take-over.

According to the plaintiffs, the ICU was governed by a constitution adopted at its seventh regular quadrennial delegates conference held in August 2003 which vested the supreme authority of the national union in the delegates conference.

They said on August 2, 2007, an emergency national executive meeting of the ICU was summoned to discuss the preparations for its upcoming eighth quadrennial delegates conference which was presided over by the national chairman.

They said during the meeting and while the national chairman was out during a recess, Jimpetey-Djan announced the election of a new chairman and a secretary following what he described as cracks in the leadership of the union.

 
Story by Stephen Sah