Threat to Remove DCE From Office Unnecessary and Illegal

ATTEMPTS by some youths of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Krachi West Constituency in the Oti Region to remove the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Douglas Osei-Nti by force are not only unnecessary, but illegal.

Even worse, locking out the DCE lawfully appointed by the President, and barricading his office as was seen in pictures published, is simply shameful.

According to reports, the irate youth stormed the office of Mr Osei-Nti, and requested he leaves the office over claims of non-performance.

A former NPP organiser in the constituency, Sarfo Sunkwa was quoted as saying that the DCE was making the party unpopular in the constituency which they fear might lead to the party losing 2020 election.

"We cannot sit and watch for the DCE to run the party down because we may not get up to 1,000 votes in 2020 election if he continues to occupy that position. We want him to go," he said.

It is most unfortunate that the youth in the Krachi West Constituency threw caution to the wind and behaved in such a reprehensible manner.

The threat and the action of the youth is criminal, we cannot ignore it. Nobody is above the law and regardless of the motive that drove them to embark on that adventure, they must be made to face the law.

Their action is illegal and they must be held accountable. There are laid down procedures in the 1992 constitution for the removal of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) from office and its shameful that the youth decided to use illegal means to get the DCE out of office.

It is sad that youths in political parties have acquired the notoriety in attacking duly appointed officials and taking the law into their own hands to do whatever they want. That is unacceptable.

It is time to say no to these types of reckless behaviour and as a people and as a nation, shun this unacceptable misbehaviour against public officials.

Under no circumstances must citizens rise up in the manner the youth of Krachi West did, to remove appointed officials from office. We are better than that.

The point is that there are better ways to deal with the issues raised by the youth; legal and lawful means that do not cause unnecessary embarrassment and humiliation to anyone.

We all know that the DCE might not be faultless. He may have had shortcomings and the youth as well as the members of the community are within their right to speak up against it.

However, we cannot endorse threat and violence because they are not the way to resolve the challenges in the community.

We know that the youth might be feeling let down by the DCE but we advise that they leave the judgment of the performance of the DCE to the appointing authorities to determine.

All of us are duty bound to be law abiding, behave responsibly and sort out problems in lawful and orderly manner.

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