Some known National Democratic Congress (NDC) sponsored Assembly members in the Jirapa Municipal Assembly, in the Upper West Region, have started putting spanners in the wheels of the MCE, with rather lamely trumped-up charges.

In a letter, purportedly, jointly signed by 18 elected assembly members and addressed to the Presiding Member, Hon. Helen Zaato, the Assembly members are requesting the Presiding Memeber to summon a special meeting and invite the Electoral Commission for them to carry out their impeachment agenda.

Without any shred of evidence the Assembly members, allegedly the MCE breached procurement laws and the Local Governance Act and awarded a contract for the renovation of her official bungalow which needed no renovation in the first place.

The Assembly members say the contract sum for the unlawful and unnecessary renovation of the MCE's bungalow allegedly exceeded the internally generated funds (IGF) of the Assembly in 2017.

The MCE is also accused of personally taking one of the Assembly's pick-up vehicles for servicing and inflating the cost of servicing the vehicle.

On the charge of abuse of office, the Assembly Members are accusing the MCE of using her office to transfer workers in the Municipality.

They cited one incident in which the MCE wrote a note to the then District Director of Education to transfer a teacher out of the Municipality in the middle of the academic year.

When the Assembly Members heard of the said transfer, they questioned the MCE at an Assembly meeting and her response was that it was a Deputy Minister for Education who had phoned her to facilitate the transfer of the teacher.

However the Assembly has responded to the flimsy allegations even before it gains wings:

Read the unedited response below:

JIRAPA MCE CONFIDENT OF BEING EXONERATED ON IMPEACHMENT PROCESS AGAINST HER

The office of the Hon. MCE wish to entreat the good people of Jirapa, relatives, party executives, sympathizers and the general public to remain calm as the supposed impeachment process initiated by some assembly members gear to an end.

The Hon. MCE is optimistic that, the long standing relationship between her and hon. Members of the house is still resolute, and all allegations levelled against her are not true.

Despite this disturbing circumstance the Hon. MCE still run the day to day activities of the assembly to ensure that his Excellency, President of the Republic NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO’s promises to the good people of the municipality is timely delivered.

However, the office of the Hon. MCE of Jirapa has been drawn to some allegations by some faceless political players which is aimed at misinforming the public about an impeachment scheme being hatched against the hardworking, selfless and developmental oriented female MCE of our time.

The office of the Hon. MCE would have wished to remain silent over the issue but have also observed with worry that these are calculated attempts to run to the general public with misleading information relating to the impeachment process to cause fear and panic in the municipality.

In the said article the writers seek to misinform the general public on the following issues of: vote of no confidence, overwhelming confirmation, the petition, details of accusations and Jirapa tradition.

All these can be described as mere fabrications and complete lack of knowledge with regard to impeachment process. With great concern this spirited attempt to create doubts in the minds of discerning residents regarding the Hon. MCE impeccable integrity is dead on arrival. We therefore, wish to set the records straight with the following sacred facts.

VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

Vote of no confidence in the local government system is the process to start investigations into the allegations or issues of concern raised by members of the house. If members succeed in passing vote of no confidence the assembly will set a committee to investigate or the affected MMDCE will proceed to court to defend the allegations. It is not true that immediately after succeeding in passing vote of no confidence the affected person will be removed from office without the opportunity to defend, that will be autocratic and unlawful.

OVERWHELMING CONFIRMATION

98% the highest confirmation rate since the establishment of the assembly cannot be translated into vote of no confidence when all the issues raised lack substance and most importantly the assembly constitute government appointees, relatives and well-wishers of the MCE. Rather the 98% is very much indicative of incorruptible and selfless nature of the Hon. MCE. More so the Hon. MCE now have voting right and will not vote against herself.

THE PETITION

The eighteen members who signed the petition is misleading as some members have written to apologies and isolate themselves from the petition. And in their letter they stated clearly that, they were misinformed to sign for their assembly members’ motorbike. Again the petitioners are hiding under allegations of corruption, abuse of power and mismanagement of assembly’s resources as basis of their petition, but it is a known fact that, this impeachment process is all about ones inability to get two-thirds of votes to enable him win as presiding member.

DETAILS OF ACCUSATIONS

Breach of procurement laws is a complete display of lack of knowledge and ignorance on how the assembly operates. There is a procurement committee that is responsible for perusing and awarding contracts. This can also be considered as an attack and insults on the integrity of staff, the assembly secretariat who are technical advisers to the Hon. MCE.

If the there is any breach of procurement laws then the whole house is to blame because an annual action plan was presented to the house and was duly approved.

Issue relating to servicing of assembly’s pick-up is yet another false allegation, the assembly has a transport officer who is responsible for servicing all vehicles in the assembly and the Hon. MCE will not reduce her position to a transport officer. As has always been the case, a budget was submitted to the entire house and was approve by members after proper scrutiny and due diligence was conducted before the vehicle underwent servicing.

It is clear that, all these false allegations are geared towards whipping up public sentiments to smear the MCE, it is a favorite tactics of some elements within the assembly whose interest is to derail or delay the momentum of development for their parochial political interest.

JIRAPA TRADITIONAL COUNCIL

It is so disheartening that these individuals will go to the extent of disregarding and disrespecting traditional authority after their refusal to honor an invitation by the landlords are now accusing the Hon MCE of faking a letter from the Jirapa traditional council that is headed by a respected statesman who understands the law and will call for the arrest of any person who uses his kingship for such an act.

The involvement of Mr, Eric Johnson CEO of Jirapa Dubai can never be said to be true and even if he did, Mr. Eric Johnson as we all know him is a respected son and a businessman who have demonstrated clearly his desire of the progress and development of the municipality and will not sit unconcern and allow some few individuals to halt the progress of development because of their parochial interest.

HISTORY

In their yet to be published article, the writers again seeks to inform the public that, history will be made if they successfully passed the vote of no confidence. Indeed history will be made if their also failed as the first set of assembly members who has made unsuccessful attempt to remove a true daughter and wife of Jirapa Konkuo and Duori Naayiri respectively from office.

It the 34 votes to impeach the Hon.MCE will be successfully then the assembly would have gotten a presiding member by now.

In the face of all these distractions and attempts by dark forces to derail the Hon.MCE , she will continue to discharge her mandate without fear or favour for the development of Jirapa municipality.