Former Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Samuel Ofosu Ampofo says protests and demonstrations by youth groups against President John Dramani Mahama’s nominees for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDCEs) are not the way to go.

He has, therefore, advised the protesting youth to respect the president, who reserves the powers “to appoint and disappoint” Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), according to him.

Speaking in an interview on TV3’s 7GMT on Tuesday, July 30, 2013, Mr Ampofo noted that due processes and background checks are conducted by the president before coming out with nominees.

He accused some assemblies of holding the president’s nominees to ransom, saying: “The element and undertone of politics in it is [also] a cause”.

“These are very trying and difficult times,” he stressed.

Mr Ampofo advised MMDAs to respect the president irrespective of opinion on his nominees.

The former DCE for Fanteakwa said assembly members must know the responsibility they carry in approving or rejecting the president’s nominations.

He also advised MMDCEs to exhibit a high sense of responsibility so that later the people themselves will rally behind them when they are re-nominated.

Protests have greeted President Mahama’s nominations across the country with the recent being the nomination of Mohammed Aminu Luqman for East Gonja District in the Northern Region. Youth went on rampage pulling down billboards of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Salaga, the District capital, and vandalizing the party’s office.