Tarkwa assembly members threaten court action

Some members of the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly in the Western Region have threatened to take legal action against the municipal assembly and the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Benjamin Kesse.

According to the counsel for the plaintiffs, Stephen Kwesi Kesse, on May 22 his clients were physically prevented from performing their legitimate duty of attending the assembly’s meeting to vote to confirm the President’s nominee for the position of MCE. He said the purported act was contrary to the laws governing meetings to confirm the President’s nominee.

It would be recalled that President Akufo-Addo recently revoked the appointment of the immediate-past MCE, Gilbert Kennedy Asmah, and nominated the Constituency Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Benjamin Kesse, for the position.

However, members of the assembly failed to confirm the President’s nominee and the assembly was, therefore, rescheduled to reconvene within 10 days to revote.

The meeting was convened amid tight security but was attended by only 22 out of the 44 assembly members who subsequently took part in the first meeting that rejected the President’s nominee.

At the end of the second voting, Mr. Kesse, a former Presiding Member of the assembly, was allegedly confirmed as the MCE with 20 out of the 22 votes.

Information gathered indicated that prior to the voting exercise, assembly members perceived to be opponents of the President’s nominee were prevented from entering the hall where the programme took place.

A letter by the plaintiffs’ lawyer, copied to the Assembly’s Coordinating Director, noted that the assembly members who were allegedly prevented from taking part in the confirmation process were duly elected by their respective electoral areas and had been sworn into the assembly.

He described the confirmation of the MCE as illegal and non-compliance to the laid-down rules, procedures and standing orders of the assembly in the confirmation of a President’s nominee.

Lawyer Stephen Kwesi Kesse indicated that the purported meeting called to confirm the MCE was procedurally illegal, null and void, and of no effect.

He has, therefore, called on Mr. Kesse to vacate the office of the MCE and not to hold himself as the MCE.

Source: Daily Guide Network