Ursula: Why the instant dismissal of Victoria Hammah?

Ablekuma West Member of Parliament, Ursula Owusu, who was embroiled in a hotly contested parliamentary election with dismissed Deputy Communications Minister, Victoria Hammah, has expressed amazement about why President John Mahama sacked Hammah with alacrity.

Hammah was sacked after she was heard on a leaked tape saying she didn’t see the sense in putting her job at risk when she has not yet made US$1Million.

She was also heard on the tape denigrating fellow Deputy Minister Rachel Appoh as a “brainless, ugly, loud-mouthed and egoistic” person who has been needlessly fighting her boss Nana Oye Lithur at the Gender, Children and Social Protection Ministry.

Her dismissal came three months after she claimed on facebook that pressure was being mounted on her to “steal” from the coffers of the state to satisfy the demands of some people around her.

Although a press statement issued by the Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga, did not explain why Victoria Hammah was sacked, social commentators like the Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako Jr. say, the two events cannot be mutually exclusive of each other.

Baako said on Saturday that anybody who makes a contrary argument “should tell that story to the marines”.

Ursula Owusu said on Joy FM Saturday that: “We’ve had lots and lots of tapes out there in the public domain and no action has been taken about them so my question that I want to throw out there for us to consider is ‘why this instant action by government on this particular matter? Is it because the allegations made or the information provided cut too close to home, so it’s an attempt to distant government quickly from this lady? Is there a gender angle in there? Why this near instantaneous reaction when there have been tapes out there including even more, in my opinion, serious ones about how party functionaries are able to influence the security apparatus and all that, and that’s gone unanswered; it’s just been wished away; the Yaw Boateng Gyan tape”.