AFAG petitions Mahama to remove Electoral Commission boss from office

Richard Nyamah, AFAG

Mr. Richard Nyamah, the Spokesperson of pressure group, Progressive Nationalist Forum, has petitioned President John Mahama for the removal of the Electoral Commission Chairperson from office. Mr.Nyamah says Mrs. Charlotte Osei engaged in unconstitutional behaviour by holding another public offices in addition to her role as EC boss. He therefore submitted a petition to the President to act in accordance with Article 146 of the Constitution and remove from office of Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Mrs. Charlotte Osei. Mr. Nyamah in January this year blew the whistle on Mrs Osei’s Borad Membership of Ghana Reinsurance. He argued that by continuing to serve on the Board of Ghana Reinsurance after her appointment as Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Osei acted in breach of Article 44(4) of the Constitution.

The provision says, “The Chairman and the two Deputy Chairmen of the commission shall not, while they hold office on the Commission, hold any other public office.” The Ghana Reinsurance revealed that the EC Boss resigned her Board membership in December last year. But Richard Nyamah insisted to the extent that Mrs Osei resigned long after her appointment and swearing in, she has violated the constitution. When this point was put to her by Samson Lardy Anyenini on Joy FM and MultiTV’s Newsfile, she said anyone who believed she had violated any law should go to court.

Apparently accepting the challenge, Richard Nyamah who successfully caused the removal of CHRAJ boss, Mrs Lauretta Vivian Lamptey, brought a similar petition against the EC boss. In a statement issued in Accra, the petitioner said, “the EC boss’s belated resignation from Ghana Reinsurance Company Limited (a Limited Liability Company with 100% Ghana government shareholding) smacks of an admission of the breach of the prohibition in Article 44(4) of the Constitution.”

 Mr. Nyamah said he was seeking “to exercise his right as a citizen to uphold the Constitution against such acts of serious misconduct,” and promises to show that Mrs. Osei “exercised grave misjudgement and violated the Constitutional requirements of her office with ‘terms and conditions of service as a Justice of the Court of Appeal’ and is therefore no longer fit to remain in that august office.”