Unlawful Standing Committee Meeting; A Recipe For A Fragmented PNC
We wish to express our outmost displeasure at the attempt by Dr. Edward Nasigri Mahama; Leader of the People's National Convention to assume the power of the party’s constitution in all his dealings.
He has been contemptuously disregarding the constitution in pursuit of his self-interested agendas. The latest illustration of such gross disregard was when he without recourse to Article 46 as amended, excluded Regional Secretaries and other members from a Standing Committee meeting he purportedly called.
On Saturday 9th September, 2017, a Standing Committee meeting was convened at the Party Secretariat upon the instruction of Dr Edward Nasigri Mahama who chairs Standing Committee meetings. This meeting took place without invitations to Regional Secretaries; an action that does not sit well with our constitution and should not have happened. This singular act was a slap on the face of Article 46 (17) of our party’s constitution.
As a result, the meeting could not form a quorum. Bizarrely, non-members of the Standing Committee were rather invited to attend the said meeting. We (the Regional Secretaries) find this action by the Leader, unacceptable and should not be tolerated.
As officers who were elected to protect and defend the constitution of the party among other things, we wish to state emphatically that, the meeting was not properly constituted and therefore could not be said to have the power of a Standing Committee for the following reasons:
1.That Regional Secretaries who are members of the Standing Committee were not invited.
2.That Persons who are non-members of the Standing Committee were invited instead.
3.That not all members of the National Council of Elders were invited. Indeed, only one was invited.
We are therefore urging all party faithfuls and in fact, the general public to disregard any communication purportedly sent out by one Emmanuel Wilson as constituting resolutions from that meeting. Beyond the fact that some of the claims are illegal (for instance the formation of a Congress Committee, which is the exclusive preserve of NEC; refer to Article 44.b), some were ridiculous.
The truth of the matter is that, that “meeting” could not agree on anything as many of the Regional Chairmen kept raising valid legal points regarding the propriety of the meeting and its jurisdiction in relation to many of the matters that were tabled. The said meeting could at best be described as a gathering of some party persons outside of the Standing Committee but chaired by the Leader.
The attempt to get Regional Secretaries out of the standing Committee looks like a deliberate and mischievous plan that began with the so-called suspension and dismissal of the General Secretary and his immediate deputy respectively because, under Article 47 (1)(a) the Standing Committee is supposed to be under the supervision of the General Secretary.
It states “The Standing Committee shall be the supreme administrative organ of the Party and shall be responsible for the direction and administrative machinery of the Party at all levels, under the General Secretary who shall be answerable to NEC.” We will continue to protect and defend the constitution in the supreme interest of our great party.
Meanwhile, we want to caution that, the attempt by Dr. Edward Mahama to replace the General Secretary with the Secretary of Communication will not be taken kindly.
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