An attempt by some members of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to remove the Presiding Member (PM) of the Assembly, Desmond Nii Addo Biney from office in what seemed like a palace coup yesterday, backfired.
Members of the Assembly received a text message inviting them to a meeting to move the motion against the PM for allegedly undermining the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Alfred Oko Vanderpuye, through a memo he was said to have written and sent to the Chief of Staff about happenings in the AMA.
The Mayor of Accra is therefore suspected to be the brain behind the move to overthrow the PM in view of their strained relations.
The motion for the removal of Mr Biney was tabled by the assembly member of Akwetey, one Razak Musah.
According to a source at the AMA, the initial intention was to invite the PM to respond to the allegation of trying to undermine the Mayor, but after a second thought some members of the Assembly who are said to be sympathetic to Mr Vanderpuye pushed for a motion to pass a vote of no confidence in the PM.
But when members of the Assembly converged at the premises of the AMA to move the motion yesterday, they were told some anomalies about the motion had been referred to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for investigations since some of the signatories did not match those of the individuals supposed to have signed them.
By the standing orders of the Assembly, apart from the inaugural meeting which is supposed to be called by the Secretary, all other meetings are supposed to be called by the Presiding Member.
This was what compelled some of the Assembly Members to call for the meeting since the standing orders of the AMA required one-third of members to push for any such meeting.
Mr Biney however failed to show up when the meeting was called yesterday.
Some members of the Assembly were therefore sent to him at his office to ascertain why he was not at the meeting grounds.
“When the delegation was sent to him, he came to respond to the reason why he did not call the meeting in the first place and he also said that he did not write the letter based upon…maybe because he has a personal problem with the Mayor but he copied them because the Mayor has failed to implement decisions reached by the Assembly,” one Assemblyman told DAILY GUIDE.
Chief among this, the source said, was the issue about the Chairman of the Ashiedu-Ketete sub metro, Nii Adjebu Lamptey, who has occupied the position for the past two years without being required by law and a host of other issues.
In spite of his explanation, some members are still pushing for the removal of the Presiding Member.
It however appears the Assembly is divided on the issue since some members are against the attempt to remove the Presiding Member.
“I just want to assure that the Presiding Member will sail through because you will need two-thirds of all assembly members to be able to unseat him and from the look of things it will be difficult for them to get the two-thirds,” another Assemblyman told the paper.
Per the calendar of the Assembly, the next general assembly meeting is expected to take place between 27 and 28 March, 2013, when the motion is likely to be moved.
