Rejected Wenchi MCE Aspirant throws Support for Nominee

A rejected MCE aspirant of the Wenchi Municipality, Joseph Yaw Mensah has thrown his support for the nominee for the area, Honourable Alexander Obour Damoah.

The former Wenchi constituency Research Officer and also Assemblymember for Boadan/Ntoase electoral area, Mr Joseph Yaw Manu a.k.a Wofa Joe disclosed that he has congratulated the nominee and will respect the decision of the President and trust the competence of Hon. Alexander Obour Damoah.

 He appealed to all stakeholders to support him for the rapid development of the constituency.

On September 19, the government through the Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Dan Botwe released the list of nominees for the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) positions.

Out of the 260 nominees, 38 are females whiles 222 are males.

The substantive minister in a press briefing on Sunday afternoon noted that Regional Directors of the Electoral Commission will get in touch with the Presiding Members of the various Assemblies and start the process of confirming the President’s nominees.

The Police Service has arrested four residents in Odododiodoo for leading the protest in the constituency over the alleged removal of Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah from office.

The four; Salaami Bukari, 36, Daniel Opare Oman, 43, Edward Holm, 38, and Daniel Clottey, 41, according to a press statement signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kwesi Ofori, blocked a section of the road in Jamestown by burning tires on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Dan Botwe, says individuals who object to the list of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) appointment had no basis to hit the streets to cause chaos in the country.

According to the minister, the President has the legal backing to either accept or reject any person recommended by the Selection Committee for the MMDCE role.

Interacting with media after the announcement, Mr Dan Botwe explained that the incumbent government during its first administration in 2017 appointed individuals who were neither recommended nor showed up for vetting but were competent as MMDCEs, hence describing the ruckus as needless.

“Why are we even making an issue out of this. That the President sets up a committee to do some work and advice him, they bring the report and the President decides to appoint different people and it is an issue?

“A government sets up a high-powered committee, they bring their work, government issues a white paper accepting some of the recommendations and rejecting some and it is done.

So what is strange about the fact that the President sets up a committee internally to advise him, not bound by any statutory injunction. He does it for his personal education for him to make a decision that happened in 2017.

There are others who never submitted themselves to the process but they were appointed and so let’s not make it an issue.

“It absolutely has no basis at all. That because somebody came for an interview and he was shortlisted, came to the National level, the Committee recommended that you should be given the position, the President says ‘no, I take the final decision.

I think it should be somebody else’ and you think it is a justification for anybody to misbehave, absolutely not,” he said on Monday.

His comments come in response to opposition by some members of the general public to the list of appointed MMDCEs yet to be confirmed.

Some supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Chereponi and East Mamprusi Districts of the North East region went on a rampage and vandalized party property.

Prior to the release, the youth of Odododiodoo and Bukom in the Greater Accra Region also took to the streets to protest the alleged removal of the current Mayor of Accra, Mohammed Nii Adjei Sowah from office.

“None of them can come out and say they didn’t have that understanding,” he insisted.

Nana Ama Aasiedu, Bono Region