Nana Akomea, Director of Communications of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has joined teeming Ghanaians who are clamoring for the prosecution of Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan the Commissioner of the Electoral Commission for willfully causing financial loss to the State for the role he played in the botched District Assembly elections.
According to Nana Akomea, Dr. Afari Gyan “knew very well that he was embarking on an illegality” and so the Attorney-General and Minister Justice must start the process of prosecuting the EC Boss and if possible the entire Commission.
The NPP Director of Communications added that the EC Boss failed on two fronts; “applying common sense and strictly fulfilling a Constitutional requirement”.
In a brief interview with The New Crusading GUIDE, Nana Akomea suggested that arrogance on the part of the EC was what caused the loss of GHc317 million to the State and “Dr. Afari is unashamedly asking for more cash”
“Dr. Afari Gyan knew the CI which was pending in Parliament had not matured but went ahead to open nominations so he must be made to answer why he did that”, Nana Akomea insisted.
According to him, common sense should have told the EC that it should not have set a weekend deadline for the submission of forms to aspiring Assembly members. “At least they should have extended submission of the forms at least to the next working day”, he added.
An aspirant in the Efutu area in the Central Region, Benjamin Ayi Mensah went to court after he was denied participation in the elections because he submitted his forms late.
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court declared the scheduled elections unconstitutional and ordered the EC to start the process afresh.
Meanwhile, some aspirants in the District Assembly elections are demanding a refund of their monies after the Supreme Court verdict stopped plans to hold the elections.
However, Dr Amoako Baah, a Political Science Lecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology says although he supports any move by any aspirant to sue the EC, which is part of democracy, “it is not going to be something that the court is going to decide in six months.” This, he said, won’t be to the benefit of aspirants in the short term.
“When they sue the EC, they sue Ghana. It’s our money, the EC doesn’t have its own money. That too is money that we the tax payers have to pay.”
He said although Afari Gyan supervises activities of the EC, he shouldn’t be the only one to take blame for the financial loss to the state.
The Head of the Political Science Department of KNUST urged that, “We have to learn a lesson that when we put the wrong people in places, it costs us money, it costs us dearly. The confidence of the people in their government is gone.”
In a related development, Dr. Afari Gyan appeared in Parliament on Tuesday and apologized for the blunder saying he was misinformed.
<<Print>>