<<Print>>Thirty-three angry constituency chairmen of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Eastern Region are calling on President John Mahama to sack the Eastern Regional Minister, Antwi Boasiako-Sekyere and the Kwahu South DCE, Joseph Omari Sasu or they will all resign from the party.
According to them, the Regional Minister and the Mpraeso DCE, along with some other DCEs in the region, were not competent and therefore could not help the party to achieve the Agenda 50-50 project.
The executives criticised the regional minister for continuously failing to deal with the many concerns they had raised concerning the poor conduct of some DCEs in the region.
The minister was also fingered for the detention of the Mpraeso NDC executives who allegedly attacked the DCE in his office where they were said to have been pepper-sprayed.
The angry chairmen’s concerns came after the Mpraeso Magistrate Court, presided over by Mariam Saleh, yesterday granted bail in the sum of GH₵8,000 with one surety each to five NDC constituency executives in the persons of Chairman Mahama Salifu, Smart Somuah Nkansah, Sulemana, Osei Bonsu, Haruna Seidu and Owusu Ansah, who were last Friday remanded into police custody after they were charged with conspiracy to commit crime, unlawful entry, assault on a public officer and stealing.
The five executives were arrested on Thursday after the DCE accused them of barging into his office and assaulting him.
He alleged also that they had stolen an amount of GH₵800 belonging to him.
In his defence, Joseph Omari said he pepper-sprayed them to discourage further aggression.
Counsel for the suspects, Francis Sosu, argued in court on Monday that the charges against his clients were bailable, stating that once the criminal proceedings had been activated against “our constituency executives, we just have to go through the procedure, because this is a family issue. We believe that the family will be able to put their house in order.”
Despite the release of their colleagues, the constituency chairmen said they still would not open any of the 33 constituency offices until the Regional Minister and the DCE were removed from office.
Many party supporters who gathered at the court premises were seen jubilating following the release of the suspects, as they chanted anti-Joseph Omari slogans.
The irate constituency chairmen and party faithful, clad in John Mahama T-shirts, holding placards and wearing red armbands, further hit the streets of the district capital Mpraeso on a protest march, calling for the removal of the Regional Minister, DCE and other incompetent DCEs in the region.
They said they won’t rest until the two people were shown the exit.
The angry NDC constituency chairmen’s spokesman, Johnson Amofor, said: “Our offices are still closed till we see the end of the trial. We have not opened our offices since Saturday. We cannot go and sit at the office when we don’t know the next step or action of Omari.”
Some of the regional executives who stormed the court were Mark Oliver-Kevor, Secretary, his deputy Francis Annor Dompreh, and Alhaji Mahama Sumaila, NEC Member.