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The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Johnson Asiedu Nketia popularly known as Gen. Mosquito has described as illegal the constituting of a Commission of Inquiry to look into the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence.

“I am surprised and even confused because there is a procedure for setting up a Commission of Inquiry which has not been followed and so I want to believe that it is a smokescreen which the government is using to protect its own appointees and other party apparatchiks,” he alleged.

The Government has set up a three-member Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Mr Justice Emile Short, former Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to investigate and establish the facts leading to the events and associated violence in the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election. (Click to read)

However, Article 278:1 of the 1992 constitution prevents the government from setting a Commission of Inquiry without a constitutional instrument according to Asiedu Nketia.

Speaking in an interview on Citi FM's eyewitness news, the NDC Scribe said: “our constitution is very clear . . . that the president by a constitutional instrument establish a Commission of Inquiry into any matter of public interest . . . but I have not heard of any constitutional instrument being laid before parliament; for it to mature . . . and then somebody from the presidency announces that the president has established a commission . .. It is a wrong move and I think that should not prevent the police from arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators who are known. It cannot be a Commission of Inquiry according to our laws . . . it is false; it is a smoke screen."

The NDC scribe has meanwhile advised the members of the Commission to insist that the ‘right thing is done’ because “it is not a commission until it is established through the proper procedure”.

Article 278 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana

(1) Subject to article (5) of this Constitution, the President shall, by constitutional instrument, appoint a commission of inquiry into any matter of public interest where-

(a) the President is satisfied that a commission of inquiry should be appointed; or

(b) the Council of State advises that it is in the public interest to do so; or

(c) Parliament, by a resolution requests that a commission of inquiry be appointed to inquire into any matter, specified in the resolution as being a matter of public importance.
(2) A commission appointed under clause (1) of this article may consist of a sole commissioner or two or more persons one of whom shall be appointed the chairman of the commission.

(3) A person shall not be appointed a sole commissioner or the chairman of a commission of inquiry under this article unless he is -

(a) a Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature; or

(b) a person qualified to be appointed a Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature; or

(c) a person who has held office as a Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature; or

(d) a person who possesses special qualifications or knowledge in respect of the matter being investigated.
(4) Subject to clause (3) of this article, where a commission of inquiry appointed under clause (1) of this article consists of more than two commissioners, other than the chairman, at least one of them shall be a person who possesses special qualifications or knowledge in respect of the matter being investigated.