A group that petitioned President Akufo-Addo to have Mrs. Jean Mensa the Electoral Commissioner removed from office have planned to picket at the Jubilee House and EC Headquarters to drum home their demand for the Chair to be removed.
In June 2020, some aggrieved Ghanaians who petitioned the EC Chair asking she to respond to some issues and reasons why she should not be removed from office.
In a statement, the lawyer for these persons, Chris A. Ackummey of BCMS Consulting, cited 11 reasons for their demand for the removal of the EC Chair from office pending an official written response from her outfit within two weeks.
“My clients intimate that they voted in previous elections conducted by the Electoral Commission and now fear being disenfranchised if you are allowed to continue with the current plan to compile a new voters’ register. A plan which the national House of Chiefs, Clergy, Clerics, Civil Society Organizations, Federation of Labour, political parties and well-meaning Ghanaians have cautioned you against. The allegations for which responses are sought, all of which if proven, will make you unfit to hold the office you currently occupy.”
They accused her of “gross incompetence, refusal of birth certificate and voters ID card for registration, illegal Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meetings, procurement breaches, defiance of COVID-19 restrictions and the endangering of millions of lives through a registration exercise.”
They had argued that the registration exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic will endanger their lives hence their threat to resort to legal means to have the Chairperson removed if they were not satisfied with the responses received from Jean Mensa.
However, the group did not get a response following which they petitioned the President to have removed.
Speaking on the matter, leader of the group, Elikem Kotoko said since they petition the President, he has not acted on the petition.
According to him, the picketing will draw the attention of the President on his refusal to act on Article 146 to have the EC Chair removed.
He said the President should have referred the matter to the Chief Justice after three days of receiving the petition but he [President] has failed to do so after receiving the petition on January 21, 2021.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
