Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr, says the recommendation of the Chief Justice’s Committee to remove the former EC Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, was too harsh.
The former EC Chair among other things was found guilty of breaching procurement processes in the award of a contract to Dream Oval and engaging the legal service of law firm Thaddeus at Law.
But speaking on Joy FM/MultiTV’s Newsfile on Saturday, Mr Baako said he does not believe that a breach of the Procurement Act, as concluded by the committee, warrants the removal of Mrs Osei from office.
“As far as I am concerned, I don’t think, seriously speaking there was a violation of the public procurement law. I think there has been a strict interpretation of the public procurement law, a very harsh [one],†he said.
Conspiracy
Kwaku Baako Jnr is convinced there was a grand conspiracy to remove the former EC Chair at all cost.
He said records of proceedings during the Committee hearing reveals that a man who had petitioned the President on the basis of personal knowledge of allegations against the former EC Chair had no such knowledge.
He also accused one of the EC Commissioners, one Pauline Adobea Dadzawa and three others, including the two sacked Deputy Commissioners, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Amankwah, of conspiring to kick out Charlotte Osei.
“This whole thing was a conspiracy among the members of the Commission,” he said.
Background
Mrs Charlotte Osei and her two deputies, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwaa, were removed from office following a recommendation by the committee constituted by the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, which probed numerous allegations levelled against them.
According to a government statement issued Thursday and signed by Information Minister, Dr. Mustapha Hamid, the three top officials of the country’s election management body have been removed for misbehaviour and incompetence.
Exerpts from the 54-page document which has been leaked to the media noted: “In all, the Chief Justice made a prima facie case against the Chairperson on six of the allegations contained in the said petition.”
