AMA members throw weight behind Okoe Vanderpuije
Some members of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) have said they will resist any attempt by any individual or group of people to remove Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije as the Chief Executive Officer of the AMA.
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Such an attempt, they said, would not go down well with the assembly, stressing, “No Mayor, No AMA.”
This was made known by the members during a peaceful demonstration in Accra yesterday to protest against some Minority members of Parliament who were reported to have called for the resignation of Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije.
They sang songs and paraded on their motorbikes in the central business district of Accra to gather support from the market women and traders.
While some decorated themselves with red armbands and headgears, others carried various photographs of the chief executive which either depicted him signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to commence or monitoring some project sites within the metropolis.
The calls by the Minority
Some members of the Minority, during a parliamentary sitting, called for the immediate dismissal of the chief executive on the grounds that the AMA boss had failed to manage Accra properly.
Their call was in relation to the collapse of an uncompleted six-storey building at Nii Boi Town on Thursday, March 13, where one person was killed and another was seriously injured.
The MP for Okaikoi Central, Mr Patrick Boamah, who led the calls on the floor of Parliament, said more municipalities must be created “if Accra is too large for Mr Vanderpuije to handle”.
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“We are asking the government to go deeper and create more municipalities so that we would have serious people with the requisite qualification to manage such assemblies that would be created.
“This is the second time this incident is happening, and the AMA boss is still sitting in his office very comfortably… So let’s create more municipalities if the AMA boss cannot manage the whole of Accra,” Mr Boamah said.
Assembly members disagree
Speaking on behalf of the assembly, the assembly member for New Mambrobi, Mr Isaac Bright Assah, said it was unfortunate that the AMA and its leadership had come under serious criticisms from social commentators and other well-meaning Ghanaians over the collapsed building at Nii Boi Town.
He said it was not the first time that buildings of such nature had collapsed.
“An example of such incidents can be traced to 2003 during the stewardship of Mr Solomon Offei Darko, the former Chief Executive of Accra, when a three-storey building collapsed at Swalaba in Accra Central,” he cited.
Mr Assah said the chief executive, in collaboration with the assembly members, had since taken steps to ensure that such incidents did not happen again in the metropolis.
“Again, we state emphatically that we the members, traditional authorities and the good people of Accra will resist any attempt to call on the mayor to resign because we consider the statement made by Mr Boamah, who is supposed to be a member of this august assembly, as unfortunate.
“He is supposed to be part of the assembly in taking decisions to protect the buildings and the good people of Accra,” he added.
Market women show support
Adding their voices in support of Mr Vanderpujie, some market women joined in the demonstration, and called on the government to turn a deaf ear to all those who were calling for the AMA boss’ resignation.
“The mayor has done a lot for the people of Accra. We can talk of the abolishing of the shift system, the construction of millennium schools and the constant monitoring of filth at market centres and their environs,” the President of the Greater Accra Market Women Association, Madam Mercy Nee Djan, said.
She said the chief executive’s zeal to work and make Accra a city of admiration among other cities in the West African sub-region cannot be underrated.
Madam Djan, therefore, called on all stakeholders to join hands with the chief executive to make Accra an investment hub for Africa.
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The standpoint
Speaking on an Accra-based radio station, Mr Boamah, who maintained his position on the performance of the chief executive, added that the concerns about collapsed buildings in Accra were actually raised by the MP for Wa East, Mr Ameenu Salifu.
“I have made my point and my position very clear. The mayor swore an oath to comply with the laws of Ghana, the Local Government Act inclusive, and if the government of the day thinks he is performing, then so be it. But for those of us who reside in Accra, we are the best judges,” he said.
“If the President thinks he is doing the right thing, then so be it. But those of us here will always raise points and criticise him. We will not accept anything wrong in Accra. I do not have any personal issue with him but if there are issues with his office, then I have the right to raise them,” he added.
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Emmanuel Agyekum, said it was important to first look at the findings made after investigations into the collapsed building before calling for the resignation of the chief executive.
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“Let us ask whether the results would have to do with the chief executive, the structure or the building inspector. What is the main cause of it (the collapse) then, and we can make such calls, but from my point of view and that of the ministry, we do not think that the mayor should resign,” he said.
On the issue of whether or not the chief executive should take responsibility for the collapsed building, Mr Agyekum said the unfortunate incident could not be attributed to Mr Vanderpujie because it happened within the assembly.