President John Evans Atta Mills has revoked the appointment of Aba Edusah as District Chief Executive (DCE) of Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese with immediate effect.
A statement signed by Joseph Yieleh Kyireh, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said the sacked DCE, who had been having a running battle with chiefs and the people of the area, had been requested to hand over to the Central Regional Minister, Ama Benyiwa-Doe to exercise oversight responsibility over the district.
No reason was assigned for her dismissal, but sources said it may be connected with her frosty relationship with the residents of the district.
The outgoing DCE told Joy Fm on Thursday December 30, that she was unfazed about her dismissal, saying that she could always use other means to gain political power.
She said as a professional teacher, she could contest in an election to be elected a Member of Parliament.
The chiefs and youth of the district in November joined assembly members to demand her dismissal, accusing her of being hostile to the people.
A press statement signed by Ekow Abban Quarshie, a youth leader, alleged that since the DCE assumed office, she had displayed very poor working relationships with the personnel of the assembly, executives and members of the ruling party as well as the traditional authorities.
The statement said series of attempts by assembly members, party executives and well-meaning citizens to persuade her to be more civil in her dealings had failed.
Following her intransigence, the residents staged a series of demonstrations against Ms. Edusah, popularly called ‘beauty queen’. The last demonstration was led by the chiefs in the area on Friday, November 5, 2010. Drama unfolded at the demonstration in Abura Dunkwa when the demonstrators were stoned by Madam Edusah.
The DCE also smashed the louvre blades at her office to scare away the demonstrators as she poured water on others from her office window.
A journalist with Choice FM was allegedly hit by a stone on his left cheek while another from GBC allegedly received some of the ‘baptism’ water from the DCE.
The DCE, who had survived four demonstrations since her appointment, was also spotted dancing and insulting the demonstrators, a situation which angered the demonstrators to start burning tyres around the assembly to smoke her out from her office to enable them to ‘deal’ with her drastically.
The peaceful demonstration nearly turned bloody when the demonstrators presented their petition to the District Coordinating Director and were about to leave when the DCE arrived in her Land Cruiser, dressed in her red and black attire with a police escort.
The DCE, who looked very frightened, started running into her office while security officers were placed at vantage points to prevent any unforeseen incident. She however started misbehaving in her office towards the demonstrators to annoy them.
It took the tight security of the Abura Dunkwa District Police to prevent the demonstrators from getting into her office to beat her up.
The demonstration, which started around 7:30 am through the principal streets of Abura Dunkwa, ended around 11:00 am where the residents finally presented their petition to the District Coordinating Director.
The demonstrators carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘Aba, The Beauty Queen Of AAK, Rest In Peace’ and ‘Sakawa DCE.’
The people, amidst drumming and chanting signifying their preparedness to ensure that the DCE was removed, were dressed in their red and black attire.
In their petition read by Ekow Abban Quarshie, the people said they had studied the DCE since she assumed office and had resolved to petition the Presidency that the DCE had been consistently insulting the chiefs in the area for no apparent reason.
Mr. Quarshie alleged that sometimes, the DCE used language that showed gross disrespect to the chiefs in the area, in addition to her bad working relations with the assembly staff.
