Suspending presidential staffer to please foot-soldiers wrong – Prof. Asare

General News of Wednesday, 13 June 2018

Source: citinewsroom.com

2018-06-13

Louise Carol Serwaa DonkorDr. Louise Carol Serwaa Donkor has been suspended for comments deemed disparaging

Legal Practitioner, Kwaku Asare has condemned the suspension of a presidential staffer, Hosanna Louise Carol Serwaa Donkor, describing it as a move ostensibly taken to “satisfy unknown foot soldiers.”

In a Facebook post, the lawyer indicated that Louise Carol’s suspension was in bad taste given that Ghanaians are not under a military regime where freedom of speech is banned.

“Vacate the suspension of Hosanna Louise Carol. It cannot be that we are now in a country where one can be suspended for saying it is of no use to argue with footsoldiers on Facebook.”

“It is a sad spectacle that would not have happened even under the military days and that I could never have contemplated could happen under the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. It takes a lot to break my spirit, but this abuse of power to humiliate a staffer to satisfy unknown footsoldiers has broken me,” Prof. Asare argued.

What led to Louise Carol’s suspension?

Louise Carol recently came under intense criticism from members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over a comment she made on Facebook.

A Facebook user posted last week that “As a general rule; I don’t engage party footsoldiers!!.”

Louise Carol in response to the post agreed with the opinion and said “you shouldn’t you can’t reason with them. It’s like tribalists.”

Scores of members of the NPP including foot-soldiers and fanatics on social media descended on the staffer, who eventually issued an apology for the comment. In her apology, she gave a long history of her loyalty to the party among other details which some considered unnecessary.

However, the Chief of Staff found it necessary to suspend her for her conduct.

The memo, which was written to Eugene Owusu, Louise Carol’s boss, further directed that she is made to write an unconditional apology and commit to good behaviour.

Sack presidential staffer

Following Louise Carol’s suspension, a former Ashanti Regional President of the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) of the New Patriotic Party, Bawa Abdul-Jalil, demanded her outright dismissal, saying her suspension is not punitive enough, and will not be deterrent enough for officials of government who conduct themselves inappropriately in office.

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