Charlott Osei Archives - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always https://citifmonline.com/tag/charlott-osei/ Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz Tue, 12 Dec 2017 07:25:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.8 https://citifmonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/cropped-CITI-973-FM-32x32.jpg Charlott Osei Archives - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always https://citifmonline.com/tag/charlott-osei/ 32 32 Charlotte Osei could remain in office during corruption probe – Lawyer https://citifmonline.com/2017/12/charlotte-osei-remain-office-corruption-probe-lawyer/ Tue, 12 Dec 2017 07:25:41 +0000 http://citifmonline.com/?p=382503 A private legal practitioner,  Yaw Oppong, has suggested that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei, could remain in her position while a probe is conducted into alleged acts of malfeasance by her and two deputies at the Commission. His comments come after a prima facie case was established against Mrs. Osei, following allegations of […]

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]]> A private legal practitioner,  Yaw Oppong, has suggested that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei, could remain in her position while a probe is conducted into alleged acts of malfeasance by her and two deputies at the Commission.

His comments come after a prima facie case was established against Mrs. Osei, following allegations of corruption and abuse of office leveled against her in two separate petitions.

[contextly_sidebar id=”FRYShpHQvU9BoM0AVkHlspoeTWBz804b”]Her two deputies, Amadu Sulley (in charge of Operations), and Georgina Amankwa (in charge of Corporate Services), will also face a probe after all three top EC officials appeared individually before the Chief Justice in the company of their lawyers, at the office of the Judicial Service located at the Supreme Court on Monday.

The Chief Justice and the Judicial Council, may now recommend to the President of the Republic, the suspension of the EC Chair from her position, to enable her undergo the hearing.

However, according to Yaw Oppong, unless it is established  that her continued stay in office would compromise the investigations, Charlotte Osei could be allowed to remain in her position while she and her deputies are probed.

“In my view,  unless it can be seen that the person who is the subject of such an investigation is capable of interfering with the investigation process in terms of suspected cases of concealment of documentary or other forms of information, otherwise I think those persons can still occupy their position,” he said on Eyewitness News. 

Yaw Oppong added that, even if the President accepts the recommendation of the Judicial Council and suspends the EC Chair, he could, at any time, reinstate her should he feel the need to do so.

“If the President is of the view that any useful purpose will be served by the person who is the subject of this investigation stepping aside or being suspended in the meantime [he can do so]. But at the same time,  Clause 11 says that the President may at any time revoke the suspension under this Article. Perhaps it may be used, but if any purpose may be served by the person being brought back to the position, the President has the power to do so,” he explained.

Yaw Oppong

President not bound by recommendations 

Yaw Oppong also suggested that, the President may not be compelled to implement the recommendations of the Judicial Council should they call for the suspension of Charlotte Osei.

Citing a similar case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the President was not bound by the advice of the Council of State,  Yaw Oppong stated that, it was however vital that the President is seen to have sought the advice of the Judicial Council on the issue, as stated by the Constitution.

“It doesn’t appear that the President may be bound by the advice [of the Judicial Council]. What it really means is that, there should be evidence that the President at least sought the advise of the Judicial Council. And I think that any prudent President, and so far we’ve had prudent presidents, will act on the advise of the Judicial Council,” he said.

“Unless that president may want to also violate the Constitution, which, so far our President has done well not to.  He’s complied essentially with the provisions that have come up for compliance.”

The Petitions

Some staff of the EC petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in July 2017, to remove Mrs. Osei from office over allegations of fraud and financial malfeasance as well as abuse of office.

Some of the allegations involved the unilateral award of contracts by the EC boss in the run-up to the 2016 general election.

The unnamed EC staff are being represented by Lawyer Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, against Mrs. Osei.

The petition against her, alleged among others the funnelling of GH¢3.9 million to partition an office, the receipt of a Toyota Land Cruiser from the Mahama government, and the use of about $14 million when the Public Procurement Authority had authorized her to use only $7.5 million.

Charlotte Osei takes on Deputies 

Mrs. Osei also responded by making allegations of corruption against her deputies, claiming that she was only being hounded because she sought to introduce systems to curb misuse and mismanagement of resources.

 

Amadu Sulley (R) with his lawyer.

Georgina Opoku Amankwa in the company of her lawyers.

Charlotte Osei among other claims, accused deputy Chairperson of the Commission of illegally signing contracts worth over GHC 40 million without her approval.

Fresh impeachment against EC Chair

Subsequently, another individual by name Douglas Seidu, a concerned Ghanaian, also petitioned the President in August 2017, seeking the removal of the EC Chair, on grounds of “financial misconduct, incompetence, conflict of interest, breaches of the public procurement processes, amongst others. It is an eight-paged petition” according to the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, who spoke to Citi News in August.

President Akufo-Addo in accordance with the constitution forwarded both petitions to the Chief Justice to look into the matter.
Suggestions are that both petitions have been consolidated to make the committee’s work easier.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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]]> We’ll file protest to stop special voting if… – Afenyo Markin https://citifmonline.com/2016/11/well-file-protest-to-stop-special-voting-if-afenyo-markin/ Wed, 30 Nov 2016 19:40:19 +0000 http://citifmonline.com/?p=273185 The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituency in the Central Region, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has threatened to prevent anyone whose name is not found on his copy of the list of special voters from participating in Thursday’s exercise. About 127,900 persons are expected to cast their votes in the special voting exercise […]

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]]> The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituency in the Central Region, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has threatened to prevent anyone whose name is not found on his copy of the list of special voters from participating in Thursday’s exercise.

About 127,900 persons are expected to cast their votes in the special voting exercise across the country on Thursday, December 1 ahead of the main general elections on December 7.

But Mr. Markins says he doubts the credibility of the list handed to them.

[contextly_sidebar id=”IZKN8c8hmGpZzLRA2bGFNd7k0iEnyqHW”]Speaking on the Eyewitness News on Wednesday, he said, the Electoral Commission (EC) had not presented the exact complement of the list of special voters in his constituency to the District electoral office.

According to him the EC had smuggled new names including unto the list without the consent of the various stakeholders.

He also alleged that those added the EC to the list were not security or media personnel or election officials as expected by election laws.

“We received the special voters register for this election and we cross-checked with the EC and upon our reconciliation, the names that are in the register are not the same of the EC district office has been provided with.”

“When we questioned her about the names, we found 18 year-olds, 21-year-olds and these people are not security officials, or election officials and they are not also journalists,” he said.

He expressed worry that there appeared to be 190 new names of special voters the EC had added the list that was not yet available to the Effutu district office.

“Tomorrow morning, I will personally be an agent, with another person. Anybody who does not qualify to be a special voter and for some reason come to the polling station will be stopped and will not be allowed to vote,” he said.

“Elections is a serious business, so if you sit unconcerned, things we get under your knee and before you realize, its gone. It will not happen. We are stakeholders, and we will prevent any unwanted person to attempts to vote,” he added.

‘Name of temporary election staff not available’

With barely 24 hours to special voting exercise, Mr Afenyo Markin said the party is yet to be given the list of temporary election staff who are expected to serve at the various polling stations contrary to the electoral laws.

He further called on the Electoral Commissioner, Charlotte Osei and the Effutu District office of the Commission to immediately furnish him with the full list of persons to participate in the special voting exercise before the start of polls at 7am on Thursday.

He further noted that the NPP will file a protest to stop the special voting exercise if the EC does not provide the list by 7am.

 

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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