The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Sunday issued a statement calling on President John Dramani Mahama to reinstate Gabriel Barimah, former District Chief Executive (DCE) of Ahafo Ano South.
The statement which was signed by the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, popularly known as ‘General Mosquito’, indicated that the reason for the dismissal of the DCE was unfair and may have been based on lack of accurate information.
It further indicated that per their investigations, the sacked DCE, acted out of frustration after some staff of the Mankranso hospital started ‘heckling him using unprintable words including the word ‘tweaa’. The party also claims that the Joy FM interview that triggered the dismissal of the Ahafo Ano South DCE was secretly done.
But a member of the ruling party’s NEC, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Kofi Adams expressed surprise at the petition saying at no point during the party’s Executive meeting was the issue of the reinstatement of the ‘tweaa’ DCE discussed.
According to him, the President has the prerogative to appoint as well as terminate appointments, adding, any decision the President takes must be respected by all.
Speaking to the comments from the General Secretary and his deputy, Kweku Baako said ‘clearly, somebody is not telling us the truth’.
He told Kwami Sefa Kayi on ‘Kokrokoo’ that “there is a problem of credibility and integrity…we have to find a way of reconciling the two comments from the two of them.”
The Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper added that the gaffe is no longer about the ‘tweaa’ DCE and how he was fired; it is now about governance and the kind of information being fed to the President.
“If it is true that the information they gave the president was not accurate, who gave the president that information? This is a governance issue; a very serious issue…how is the communication system and who drives it? It means there are other decisions that the president has taken based on wrong information. You can imagine the potential of doing a disservice to this country….heads or tail, the government loses. The issue is not about the DCE and how he was fired; it has to do with the kind of information that is being fed to the President,” he asserted.