Assembly Members Demand Removal Of Presiding Member

Some assembly members of the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly in the Upper East Region are contemplating initiating impeachment proceedings against the Presiding Member of the assembly, Mr John Nyaaba.

The decision to impeach the presiding member who is also the assembly member for the Nyariga Electoral Area, according to the aggrieved assembly members was because of the P.Ms disregard for local governance acts and other actions they considered, were very divisive and threatened the unity of the house.

A group of assembly members, who hinted grahic.com.gh of the impeachment plan, said the action to remove the PM also followed a recent letter dated, March 2, 2012 written by the P.M and endorsed by 18 other government appointed assembly members addressed to the Office of the President.

The letter demanded the transfer of the Municipal Coordinating Director, Mr Yakubu Abukari Alhassan and three other civil servants, namely the second deputy coordinating director, the finance officer and budget officer.

The P.M in his letter accused the four civil servants as being moles of the opposition NPP who did not support the ruling NDC but rather engaged in subtle manoeuvres aimed at thwarting the efforts of the assembly in its bid to bring development to the area.

The letter, which was copied to the Upper East Regional Minister, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, the National Security Coordinator and the Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, was endorsed by 13 government appointees and five elected assembly members.

Some of the allegations labelled against the civil servants in question were that they were meddling in partisan politics, were in touch with the NPP communication team in the municipality and feeding them with happenings within the assembly, that they (the accused) discriminated against NDC assembly members and were more inclined towards NPP assembly members, that they were not keen on facilitating the sub-structure through their failure to attend committee meetings to record minutes and even when they did attend, they did not record the true proceedings.

Again, the PM alleged that the municipal Coordinating Director had teamed up with key staff against the efforts of the MCE and NDC assembly members by dragging their feet in the implementation of assembly decisions and resolution despite promptings by the MCE.

“One such issue has to do with the provision of furniture for the presiding member’s offices which are mandatory”, he said adding the staff of the assembly deliberately hid or concealed some official correspondence from the municipal chief executive. “One such example is the Audited General’s Query letter of 2011 and other important documents”, the P.M alleged.

The P.M in the said letter, allegedly expressed the view that it was only by removing the civil servants from office that the chances of the NDC could be boosted to win the 2012 elections in the area.

However, according to the Municipal Coordinating Director, Mr Yakubu Abukari Alhassan, the accusations by the P.M and assembly members were baseless. He said the accusations smacked of ethnic agenda clothed in political colours aimed at tarnishing his reputation and long standing service to mother Ghana.

Mr Alhassan, who had initially declined to comment on the matter, said he would at an appropriate time and following the right procedures come out to clear the air on all the allegations levelled against him and his colleagues.