Some anonymous aggrieved Ghanaian citizens have, through their lawyer Chris Arcmann-Ackummey, started processes for the removal of Electoral Commission Chair Jean Mensa just as her predecessor Charlotte Osei, was.
In a letter to Mrs Mensa to demand her response to some eleven allegations made against her by the aggrieved citizens, their lawyer said her failure to accede to their request would compel them to proceed with a petition for her impeachment.
The letter, dated 4 June 2020, was copied to the Speaker of Parliament, the Chief Justice, Chairman of the Council of State, President of the National House of Chiefs, Secretary to the President and the Chairman of the Eminent Advisory Committee of the EC.
“The allegations for which responses are sought, all of which, if proven, will make you unfit to hold the office you currently occupy, are hereby stated below”, the letter said.
They include “gross incompetence, procurement breaches, conflict of interest, collusion, organising illegal IPAC meetings, disregarding court directives on ROPAL, refusing to accept birth certificates and voter ID cards for registration, displaying falsehood and insincerity, endangering millions of Ghanaian lives through a registration exercise scheduled to take place at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, committing perjury before the Parliamentary Special Budget Committee and defying COVID-19 restrictions”.
Mr Arcmann-Ackummey said: “My clients are Ghanaian citizens drawn from some of the regions of Ghana whose identity, presently, cannot be disclosed for security reasons”, adding: “The disclosure of their identities will be made upon the presentation of the petition itself, if that happens”.
“I have their instructions to request official written responses to some allegations publicly made against you as the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission”.
“This request is in accordance with the ‘Audi Alteram Partem’ rule and most especially, in consonance with the passage of the Right to Information Bill, failing which I will give effect to their instructions to proceed with a petition for your removal from office as the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, which petition shall be submitted without delay through the constitutionally-established procedure to the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo”, the letter threatened.
He added“My clients intimated that they voted in previous elections conducted by the Electoral Commission and now fear being disenfranchised if you are allowed to continue with the current plan to compile a new voter register – a plan which the National House of Chiefs, clergy, clerics, civil society organisations, Federation of Labour, political parties and well-meaning Ghanaians have cautioned you against”.
Source: Class FM
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I can't get it. How does one respond to questions from anonymous persons? This is the very approach in the former EC boss impeachment case. Petitioners were anonymous with their case being pushed by lawyer (I think Maxwell Opoku Agyemang or so). Isn't it right or rule of natural justice for an accused to know who the accusers are to be able to respond appropriately? I stand for correction if I am wrong. Common sense tells me they need to know their accusers. I saw it to be wrong in the case of the former EC boss and it is still wrong to me in this case too. Honestly, will the two lawyers (the one if the former EC boss case and the one who wrote to the current EC boss) respond to a similar letter of allegations/accusations (whether true or not) against them and sent to them by a colleague lawyer on behalf of anonymous persons? Why are people ready to accuse others of wrongdoing but shamefully hide their identity? What kind of society are we building in this country and are we ready to build strong institutions rather than strong men/women? We, led by power drunk politicians keep bastardizing key democratic institutions one after the other. One day we will wake up and realized we have voted for people who do not have any institution to stand up to them when they misbehave. That's when we we start crying and cursing because our thumbs have rather put dictators, authoritarians and despots in leadership roles instead of democrats. Since 1992, we have been a country largely without vision of where we want to be probably, in 20 years time, no serious policies, programmes and strategies to direct the country irrespective of who governs us. All that we care about is political power. Sadly, those who seek our mandate for such power largely do not know and if the know do not care to use it for the benefit of society. Some of us shudder to think we will die and leave our children behind in this quagmire of rotten confusion.
Men with balls in between their legs will never be anonymous, it is only an anonymous lawyer who will represent anonymous citizens. This whole saga is also another much I do about nothing if NDC demonstrations could not yield them any results.
Anokwa!!! It beats my imagination that this NDC party abhors anything good. The new register will be done, if NDC likes they forego the exercise. It is a national right to register but not compulsory if you dont want to be registered. These people are not serious at all. You have taken a matter to court and there has not been any determination by the court yet, yet still you waste everyones ears everyday with threats and ***barred word***.
if all the demonstrations, boycotts, threats of war and the supreme court could not help you, what can Chris Akumey, a lawyer who has never won any case before, do to help you?