Hamid – C’ttee findings on EC officials will be submitted to AG

• Posted on June 29, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, says the government will forward the adverse findings made against the immediate past Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei and her two former deputies to the Attorney General for possible prosecution.

“It is the Attorney General who is basically in charge of legal matters, prosecutions and issues like that. So the Attorney General will study the report by herself and I’m sure in due course she will report to the Ghanaian people on the series of measures that she will take in order to ensure compliance with the recommendations of this committee,” Mustapha Hamid said at a press conference today, Friday.

President Nana Akufo-Addo removed Charlotte and her deputies, Amadu Sulley and Geroge Opoku Amankwah from office for infractions such as procurement breaches.

In the case of her deputies, they were found guilty of wrongful payment of official funds into private bank accounts among other offenses.

This follows recommendations by a committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate petitions against the three top EC officials.

According to Mustapha Hamid, “There were six allegations [made] against the chairperson [Charlotte], four against Amadu Sulley and four against Georgina Opoku Amankwa.”

He explained that the Attorney General is expected to study the report and take up the case.

Criticism against removal 

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), however, disagreed with the government and has threatened to demonstrate, alleging that the NPP administration is preparing the grounds to rig the elections in 2020.

Mr. Hamid at the press conference further defended the removal of the top EC officials and insisted that President Akufo-Addo only adhered to the dictates of the law.

“The Committee, in accordance with the Constitution, was set up, investigated the allegations, called witnesses, and the respondents were represented by legal counsel. Once the recommendation has been forwarded to the President, article 146(9) offers the President no discretion, but to act on the recommendation. For emphasis, it reads, ‘the President shall, in each case, act in accordance with the recommendations of the committee.’ This is exactly what has happened.”

“…The Committee concluded that enough evidence had been established, and therefore recommended her removal as the Chairperson of the EC based on misbehavior and incompetence,” he added.

NDC demo

But the NDC served notice that it will stage a demonstration over the issue.

The demonstration, which was scheduled for today, Friday, was later called off to enable them to mourn the former Vice President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur who passed away earlier today.