Bawku MCE faces removal

As many as ten assembly members have appended their signatures to an eviction action against the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Bawku, Hajia Hawa Ninchema.

The number of those pushing for her removal is exactly the one-third slice of the twenty-eight members of the assembly required per the model standing orders of the house to summon a meeting for an MCE to be thrown out of office.

Her removal, if the two-thirds of the assembly members succeed in the impeachment process scheduled for next week, would cap her record as the first woman to occupy the highest public office in Bawku and also the first woman in the Upper East region to bow out in that capacity midway that way.

A letter addressed to the Presiding Member of the Bawku Municipal Assembly by the 10 cosigners cites “some high level of incompetence…leading to her detention by the Special Prosecutor Office” among a number of reasons they are yearning for a replacement.

“A meeting of the General Assembly should be convened in accordance with order 17(3) Standing Orders of District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies of Ghana for the purposes of removing Honourable Hawa Ninchema from office as MCE of Bawku Municipal Assembly for the reasons below.

“Taking and acting on serious issues without the prior approval of the assembly members. Hon. Hajia Hawa Ninchema lacks personal relationship by which she is unable to work with most department heads. By this, she masterminded the transfers of two GES (Ghana Education Service) directors and Municipal Coordinating Director of the Bawku Municipal Assembly, leaving the municipality with no substantive director that will manage the educational affairs,” said the letter.

The letter, copied to the assembly’s Coordinating Director, added: “The MCE has shown some high level of incompetence so far, leading to her detention by the Special Prosecutor Office of which she is currently on bail whilst investigation is ongoing. The MCE lacks basic managerial skills leading to massive reduction of internally generated funds meant for the development of the municipality.”

Presiding Member calls for Calm as Assembly Members Gear Up for Action

The ten assembly members pressing for the MCE’s removal include: Amali Karim, Kutanga Electoral Area; Mumuni Yakubu Nambe, South Natinga Electoral Area; Nichema M. Dakudugu, Kpalwega Electoral Area and Abdul-Rahaman Buri, Gentiga Electoral Area.

The rest are Issifu Mahama, Bador Electoral Area; Akubilla Agindaugo Paul, Kuka Electoral Area; Bukari Sulley Tangnaba, Sabongari Electoral Area; Imoro Mahamadu, Partilmi Electoral Area; Imoro Sulemana, Tampizua Electoral Area and Mbugri A. Daniel, Zabugu Electoral Area.

“I just got the letter yesterday (Tuesday) and I think that there is a need for me to do wider consultations because this is the first time it’s going to happen. The summons will come very soon. Checking the number and based on the total membership of the assembly, the number is qualified to call for that meeting. And as a Presiding Member, once the number is up to what is required, I don’t have any other option than to call for that special meeting.

“The total membership is thirty-one. The MCE is an ex officio member and doesn’t vote. And because she doesn’t vote we are supposed to be thirty. And out of the thirty we lost two. So, we have twenty-eight assembly members as we speak. For the removal of the Chief Executive, it’s two-thirds of the total membership. This is a request and the request doesn’t mean that we have voted already against her. So, I will call on the citizens of Bawku to exercise restraint as far as this activity is concerned. Again, within this period, there is room for amendments, there is room for talks to see if there could be a change of any form,” the Presiding Member, David Adoliba, told Starr News Wednesday.

“All what they have said is a lie”— MCE Fights Back

Contacted some minutes after the Presiding Member had spoken, the embattled MCE contested the allegations directed at her by the assembly members.

“I want to refute all what they have said. All what they have said is a lie. I can work with everybody. Look at these institutions, I work with all of them. I work with all of them. If the education [directorate] hasn’t got a substantive director, I’m [an administrator].

“I have retired as a Deputy Director of Education. What managerial skills was I using? I’m saying that it’s a lie. Every allegation is a lie and I can testify to it,” she countered.

Hajia Hawa Ninchema’s nomination as MCE of Bawku was greeted in June, 2017, by an anticipated rejection that rather got the erstwhile Rockson Bukari Regional Administration shocked, disappointed and very upset. She fell short of the compulsory two-thirds majority, polling 15 out of 27 votes cast.

But she sailed through the following month, clinching 23 ballots from the 28 members present. And, as a crop of the assembly members decides her fate very soon, she will pray very hard this time round for a repeat of the same failure that left her inconsolable in June, 2017, when the assembly members gathered to confirm her nomination but the needed two-thirds majority was impossible.