Petitioners happy over Charlotte Osei’s removal
The petitioners in the case for the impeachment of Mrs Charlotte Osei as Electoral Commission (EC) Chairperson have celebrated the outcome.
The petitioners in July 2017 requested the President to sack Mrs Osei, citing various breaches.
The President, acting on the recommendation of the Chief Justice’s Judicial Enquiry Committee, on Thursday, June 28, removed from office Mrs Osei and her two deputies – Alhaji Amadu Sulley and Mrs Georgina Opoku Amankwaa.
Mr Forson Ampofo, a Senior Electoral Supervisor of the EC in the Ashanti Region, who doubles as the leader of the Petitioners, on Monday made their joy known at a press conference christened “In the matter of the Petition for the removal of Mrs Osei as Chairperson of the EC.”
He said: “We at the EC would like to say that we have seen the removal of Mrs Osei, we like her removal and it makes us happy.”
“We are sure these words are very familiar to her and fellow Ghanaians. In line with this we wish to state that we shall use all legal means available to us to ensure that her removal is permanent and cast in stone.”
Mr Ampofo and his fellow petitioners, clad in all white attire, said they welcome persons, who in the exercise of their constitutional rights were seeking to impugn the process; adding that, “We shall also do all we can to uphold her removal.”
In July 2017, some concerned workers of the EC petitioned President Akufo-Addo and the Chief Justice, Ms Justice Sophia Akuffo, to cause full-scale investigations into allegations of financial malfeasance and abuse of office levelled against the EC’s Chairperson.
The concerned workers citing breaches of some provisions of the 1992 Constitution by the EC Chairperson regarding her office, conduct and duties, in a six-page petition, also called for impeachment processes to be initiated for her removal from office.
Mr Ampofo recounted that the petition was presented by 17 concerned workers of the EC, with the names and signatures of all the petitioners duly presented to the President, as part of their petition, who also presented same to the Chief Justice to determine whether a prima facie case had been made against Mrs Osei.
On the issue that a deceased person, George Adjavukewe, was among the list of petitioners, Mr Ampofo explained that Adjavukewe was indeed, one of the petitioners, which was filed on July, 2017, but died later on in November 2017.
He said the fight for probity and accountability in the activities of Mrs Osei at the EC was by no means over.
He said first of all, all the grounds for which she had been found to be liable were also grounds upon which she could be prosecuted; stating that, the Public Procurement Act, 2003, Act 663, was very clear on this.
“In this regard we are making preparations to submit these complaints to the office of the Special Prosecutor for investigations and possible prosecution of Mrs Osei,” he said.
“We shall leave no stone unturned in our quest to ensure that she faces the full effect of the law, which she gleefully breached with wanton recklessness,” he added.
Mr Ampofo expressed gratitude to the legal team of the Petitioners for the dedication to their cause- Mr Kwame Boateng, Mr Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, Mr Eric Okyere Darko, Mr Julius Opoku-Agyei and Mr Raphael Kwaku Owusu-Agyemang.
Source: GNA