Immediate past Presiding Member of the Bongo District Assembly says the District Chief Executive for the area, Rita Atanga ignored an order by the Regional Minister and executives of the governing party to rescind her decision to revoke the appointment of about 15 members of the Assembly.
Duke Awinsume Anaba said, following the stiff opposition that greeted her decision, a meeting was convened at the Regional Coordinating Council by the Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu and regional executives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) with the affected members and the DCE in a bid to resolve the matter.
It was concluded at the meeting that Madam Rita Atanga erred and thus, she was directed to reverse the decision, revoking the appointment of the 15 members, Mr. Anaba, who disclosed he wasn’t present at the meeting, stated.
However, the DCE ignored the directive and went ahead to serve the assembly members with letters officially terminating their appointments.
Mr. Anaba stated that although Madam Atanga has shown blatant disregard for the authority of the minister and the NPP’s regional executive, no action has been taken against her.
“As that happened, there were still background negotiations as to the forthrightness of the decisions and whether it should be reversed or not. The meeting was held at RCC. Interested parties, regional executives, appointees, constituency executives with the regional minister. I wasn’t part of that meeting because I had gone back to Accra,” he told Nana Tsiquaye on Breakfast Today.
“I’m sure along the line the decision was that ‘this is not right. Just go and work with your people’. But that didn’t happen and nobody also called her to order and it took 2, 3 months later before some of us now got the revocation letters”.
In July 2022, violence erupted at a meeting by the Bongo District Assembly to elect a Presiding Member following the decision by the DCE to revoke the appointment of the 15 out of the 17 appointed Assembly Members.
Mr. Anaba, who was among the affected members, accused the DCE of intentionally inviting party’s stalwarts and subjecting them to public ridicule.
