<<Print>>

Issues over the sacking of government appointees in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region may not to be ending anytime soon, as a new group, �Concerned People of the Kassena-Nankana West District� has threatened to get the Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru to reverse the process that led to the confirmation of the sitting DCE for the area. In the view of the group, the approach and circumstances that led to the confirmation of George Nonterah as DCE could best be described as �kululu� and a glaring perpetration of an illegality, which they say, has started creating tension in the district and splitting people into various groups. A leading member of the group, Donald Tuumyeridam, who is also a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), told DAILY GUIDE that their problem was not with the party or the dismissal of the government appointees of the Kassena-Nankana West district, but the Upper East Minister�s blatant disrespect for the law and the feelings of the people in the district. According to him, the group and many others in the district, were holding the Upper East Regional Minister responsible for the tension in the area, and had advised him to find ways of reinstating the Presiding Member of the Assembly, who the Regional Minister illegally dismissed. On September 25, 2013, about 20 Government Appointees of the Assembly were dismissed with letters issued by the Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru. The Presiding Member of the Kassena-Nankana West District Assembly, Dominic Abozia, a government appointee, was also sacked by the minister. The government appointees were sacked apparently due to a belief that they did not ensure that the DCE, George Nonterah was confirmed the first time he was presented. Soon after their dismissal, new persons were selected as government appointees on September 26 and were sworn in and participated in the selection of a Presiding Member for the Assembly. The current DCE, George Nonterah, happened to have been confirmed on September 26, 2013. Strangely, the dismissal letters of the 20 government appointees stated it was to take effect from August 16, 2013. This meant that when the Assembly sat and rejected the first nominee, Thomas Dallu Adda, those 20 government appointees had been dismissed. However, the minister and party elders watch them destroy Thomas Dallu Adda�s dream of staying in office as the District Chief Executive for the second time. The group has threatened to go to court to for an interpretation on how a Presiding Member could be dismissed, even if he or she is a government appointee. Before the group came out, a legal practitioner and a former Presiding Member for the Garu-Tempane District Assembly, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka on Tanga Radio, had condemned the Upper East Regional Minister for dismissing the former Presiding Member, Dominic Abozia with no regard for the law and procedure on how to remove a Presiding Member from office. According to the lawyer, the dismissal of the Presiding Member, with a letter and his acceptance to stay out of office, on September 26, 2013, were unlawful and needed to be reversed in order not to set a bad precedence for the assembly. The Upper East Regional Minister, when contacted by Daily Guide could not be reached on phone, but Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru in an interview with Tanga Radio, said he did not want to comment on the issue, especially when the Member of Parliament for Chiana-Paga, Abuga Pele had proposed a meeting over the issue. He said these issues were internal matters which could be resolved within the party through an administrative approach, rather than washing their dirty linen in public. For now Daily Guide is watching and waiting for the next step of the group.