Agona East Assembly fails to pass vote of no confidence in DCE
A meeting convened at the instance of some assembly members of the Agona East District Assembly in the Central Region to pass a vote of no confidence in the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Martin Luther Obeng, has been adjourned sine die.
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A letter signed by Emmanuel Kweku Arkoh, on behalf of the assembly members and copied to the Presiding Member, Mr Samuel Richard Ziggah, as well as the Central Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Sarpong, and the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kwadwo Oppong Fosu, paved the way for the meeting to be convened to remove the DCE from office.
According to the assembly members, they had convened the meeting to pass the vote of no confidence in the DCE as a result of ill treatment meted out to the assembly members by the district chief executive and the gross mismanagement of the assembly’s resources to his advantage.
The premises of the district assembly where the meeting was to be held yesterday had heavy security presence by officers from the Ghana Police Service apparently to maintain order and to prevent some hooligans from causing mayhem.
Before the commencement of the meeting in the absence of the DCE, the Presiding Member told the assembly members that although they had exhausted all the avenues to pass the vote of no confidence in the DCE, he had received an injunction from the Magistrate’s Court at Agona Swedru and therefore he could not preside over the meeting, since he did not want to face contempt charges.
He subsequently adjourned the meeting indefinitely and left the auditorium.
This generated a heated argument among the assembly members who argued that the court had no jurisdiction to restrain them from going ahead with the meeting since they had exhausted all the legal procedures in the Local Government Act.
The leader of the concerned assembly members, Mr Emmanuel Arkoh, told the media that 10 out of the 30 members of the assembly formed a quorum to convene the meeting and that they had gone through all the necessary procedures required by law to pass the vote of no confidence in the DCE.
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He noted that the DCE had fallen out with the assembly members and appealed to the President to sack Mr Luther Obeng from office, since his stay in office was a threat to the progress of the district
He added that if the President failed to sack the DCE, the assembly members would advise themselves.
However, checks at the Magistrate’s Court revealed that three assembly members, in the persons of Messrs Mordecai Yankson, Abdul Latif Quaye and Bahiru Gambo, filed a writ at the court, signed by the registrar, to be served on the Presiding Member and the District Coordinating Director to restrain them from holding the meeting.
The writ was served the next day on the assembly, the Presiding Member and the District Co-ordinating Director, who are defendants, to appear in court on January 15, 2013 for the hearing of the case.
The plaintiffs are seeking a declaration by the court that the meeting to pass the vote of no confidence in the DCE was null and void and for the court to grant a perpetual injunction to restrain the defendants from holding such meetings without exhausting the provisions in the standing orders of the assembly.
The summons was, however, misinterpreted by the Presiding Member as an injunction and, therefore, postponed the meeting indefinitely.