Koku Anhyidoho Job On The Line

THE DIRECTOR of Communications at the Presidency has come under fire for sacking a director for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for the Ashanti region without the knowledge of President Mills.

Koku Anhyidoho called into various radio stations in Accra and announced the immediate dismissal of the Ashanti regional ECG boss, Alhaji Abdulai Kurah after the lights at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi went off for almost 90 minutes during the country's first qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup tournament against Lesotho.

Though the Black Stars coached by Akwasi Appiah thrashed the Crocodiles seven nil, the defective flood lights caused immeasurable embarrassment to the nation.

In a desperate damage control move, Mr. Anyidoho who has in the past embarrassed the presidency with his unguarded comments announced the dismissal of the Ashanti regional ECG boss on radio in the heat of the moment.

Since then government through the Ministry of Information has issued a statement denying that the President had fired the ECG boss bringing the communications director under fire for taking such a decision without lawful authority.

Some people feel Mr. Anhyidoho is an embarrassment to government and should be sacked while others are of the view that should apologize to the nation.

Egbert Fagbile, a lawyer speaking on Joy Fm's News File program Saturday called for his immediate dismissal.

He said if indeed President Mills is truly in charge of the Presidency, he should give his communications director the boot because he cannot be arrogating power to himself and sacking people from their jobs on radio.

Mr. Fagbile, noted that what was even more embarrassing was the fact that Mr Anhyidoho failed to check that there is no position like the Ashanti regional ECG director and that there were two directors for the region.

'There are two directors for the region, East and West so which of the directors was he referring to?' he asked.

Mr. Fagbile also said that Koku Anhyidoho failed to appreciate the fact that directors of state companies cannot be dismissed by the presidency.

'Such positions are not political appointments therefore they cannot be nullified by the presidency but rather the board and management of such state institutions.'

The director of communications Mr. Fagbile said was gaining notoriety for issuing statements which do not have the blessing of the President and therefore should be sacked immediately.

On the same program, a member of the NPP communications team, Mike Ocquaye Jnr. also called for the urgent removal of Mr. Anhyidoho.

He added that the man was not only an embarrassment to the President but largely portrays the much talked about hypocrisy of President Mills.

Mr. Ocquaye Jnr, also a lawyer, contended that it was untrue that President Mills was unaware of what Mr Anhyidoho had done.

According to him, the president is intelligently dissociating himself from the statement because he has realized the decision was not only premature but misdirected.

'They are sacrificing Mr Anhyidoho because he is a small fry and therefore could be thrown about' he stated, stressing that President Mills was aware of the statement but was dissociating himself from it because of its embarrassing nature.

Mr Ocquaye Jnr explained that if President Mills was not aware of the statement, Mr Anhyidoho would not have consistently mentioned his name in the statement that he was deeply upset and that heads would roll.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Adenta who was also on the show hosted by Kwadwo Oppong Nkrumah was equally disappointed in the statement but did not call for the immediate dismissal of the director of communications at the Presidency.

Hon Kojo Adu Asare however, called on Mr Anhyidoho to apologize to the nation and also the nation that never again would he make such statements which do not have the blessing of the President.

He noted that he wished the director of communications had not made that statement because it was too early in the day for such pronouncements to be made and that some investigations should have been made before such declarations could be made.

Meanwhile, Mr Anhyidoho has stated that he takes full responsibility of the statement and that he did not have the consent of the President before he jumped on air to make that irresponsible statement.

According to him, the decision to make that reckless statement was taken when he was sitting amongst some senior persons whom he failed to mention names when spoke to Joy Fm on Saturday.

 From Morgan Owusu, Kumasi