Financial Analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford has announced his intention to champion a petition for the removal of the Commissioner of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
Ghana’s constitution stipulates that the procedure for the removal of the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ “shall be the same as that provided for the removal of a Justice of the Court of Appeal and a Justice of the High Court respectively under article 146 of the Constitution.”
This means that despite the growing calls for the President to dismiss Lauretta Vivian Lamptey, he is unable to do so unilaterally.
[contextly_sidebar id=”IEsALfzmgQwYQxAlnJfRiTOftJkabH60″]Casely-Hayford is of the view that the time has come for Ghanaians to “test the constitution” because the country is currently saddled with a CHRAJ boss who is “incompetent and has a poor sense of judgement.”
“I will certainly champion a petition for her removal. I will champion one through the appropriate channels that I know we can use. I am going to push for somebody or some group to actually file this petition because it is absolutely necessary,” he said.
Ghanaians are calling for the removal of Ms Lamptey as CHRAJ Commissioner after it was revealed that she had spent $180,000 on rent while he official residence which has been under renovation since 2011 was being done at a cost of GHC 182,000.
She is presently lodging at a hotel with her two children since her tenancy expired in 2013 and she has confirmed that she was paying $456.25 daily.
Since these revelations, some have called for her dismissal, other are urging her to resign, but according to Casely-Hayford, the constitution has “trapped” citizens and “we cannot get certain actions simply because we are not testing the case law and we are not pushing the Supreme Court to give us substantive decisions that we can use.”
The Financial Analyst on Citi FM’s The Big Issue said he was convinced that it is time for Ghanaians to go to court to prove the incompetence of the Commissioner of CHRAJ.
He admitted that under section 228 of the constitution, “you cannot remove her, the President can’t sack her, there is a protection against it and we did it for a special purpose.”
Casely-Hayford mentioned the very few avenues for removing the CHRAJ boss which include, “incompetence and if she is not sound of mind, and maybe we should question her mind; we should really ask if she is really in a comfortable place in life where she can actually discharge her duties.”
“Because for someone to say that I cannot function in my job because my accommodation is not ready, we need to question her judgement,” he added.
He cautioned the general public to desist from thinking “we had a position that can never ever be removed.”
He remarked that CHRAJ is one of the few government institutions which has the biggest support base in Ghana.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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