Charlotte Osei deserves no sympathy – Casely-Hayford

A member of pressure group, OccupyGhana, Sydney Casely-Hayford, has said the immediate past Electoral Commission Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, does not deserve the any sympathy from Ghanaians.

President Nana Akufo-Addo removed Charlotte and two EC commissioners, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwah from office on Thursday for infractions such as procurement breaches and negligence in financial matters.

This follows recommendations by a committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate petitions against the three top EC officials.
Charlotte according to the report had six allegations against her, four against Amadu Sulley and four against Georgina Opoku Amankwa.”

She had subsequently indicated that she will comment on her dismissal in due time.

Casely Hayford on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, argued that it will be needless for the dismissed EC Chair to put up any defence since the constitutional procedures were duly followed in removing the EC officials from office.

“Charlotte Osei has even gotten no moral right to come and say ‘I’m mourning Paa Kwesi Arthur so I will not talk about myself until I have finished mourning Paa Kwesi Arthur. There is no sympathy call on this one. She should not even try to create any sympathy juices for us to try and salivate on and wait for what she has to say.We are not interested. She has no side of the story.

“The thing has been investigated, we have followed due process. There is a whole article under the constitution spelling out how such matters should be handled.”

Mr. Casely Hayford however argued that the dismissed officials could sue over their dismissal if they feel they had been unfairly treated.

“I think it will be a very good idea, and I will encourage her and her deputies to go to court if they sincerely believe that they have been wrongly treated, they should go to court. It will test our constitution and give us an opportunity to correct these loopholes once and for all and make it work,” said Casely Hayford.



Committee findings on EC officials will be forwarded to AG – Hamid

The Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, has already assured that government will forward the adverse findings made Charlotte Osei and her two former deputies to the Attorney General for possible prosecution.

“It is the Attorney General who is basically in charge of legal matters, prosecutions and issues like that. So the Attorney General will study the report by herself and I’m sure in due course she will report to the Ghanaian people on the series of measures that she will take in order to ensure compliance with the recommendations of this committee,” Mustapha Hamid said at a press conference on Friday. Read Full Story