A private citizen, Kwabena Ameyaw has petitioned the local government service to sanction the Deputy Coordinating Director for the Ejura-Sekyere-Odumasi Municipal Assembly, Musah Abdul Aziz Ayaba, for filing to contest in the upcoming New Patriotic Party’s parliamentary primaries for Mion.
According to the petitioner, the conduct of the parliamentary candidate hopeful contravenes the Local Government Act.
Earlier this month, the Head of Local Government Service, Dr. Nana Ato Arthur interdicted three of his staff for similar breaches.
Two of the three interdicted staff, Roland Nsoh-Billa Abire and Alexander Hedidor contested in the August NDC parliamentary primaries.
The third, Alhaji Maazu Abubakar filed to contest the upcoming NPP parliamentary primaries.
Kwabena Ameyaw in his petition called for similar sanctions against Musah Abdul Aziz Ayaba.
“In my constituency, I have seen the Deputy Coordinating Director who is also contesting on the ticket of the NPP and we have not seen any interdiction from the Local Government Service.. Once you interdict somebody it should also be applied to this man too. You cannot quote a law against somebody and yet when somebody also flouts the same law, you will let him go scot-free.”
Dr. Nana Ato Arthur had said the conduct of the three staff members is an offence because it contravenes the neutrality clauses of the Local Government Service Code of Conduct.
He posited that even under the statutory clause for the 1992 constitution under a conflict of interest, public servants cannot be seen overtly to be practising partisan politics.
“We (public servants) cannot be seen to overtly be practising (politics) and we realized that three of our staff (local government staff) have actually filed to contest on political party tickets as members of parliament. So, in this case, the letter that you are referring to, two guys have already contested on the ticket of NDC, one guy has filed for the NPP going to contest.”
He further explained that these individuals have been interdicted and postulated, based on a previous situation which led to the dismissal of a worker, that it is likely that these persons will face similar action.
“So all the three, interdicted them, pending further investigation and further necessary steps to be taken by the council. One guy has already been fired last year when the guy contested on the political party ticket as a communication officer. So I think these three, to a large extent will follow suit.”
