Accra (Greater Accra), 10th May ?99 ?
President Jerry John Rawlings has ordered the immediate suspension from office of Mr Amos Buertey, Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister and Mr Justice Kwame Caeser, District Chief Executive of Dangme East, a Radio Ghana report said on Sunday.
The broadcast quoted a statement signed by Mr Jimmy Amissah, Secretary to the Cabinet, as saying the Greater Accra Regional Minister has been directed to put in place appropriate measures for the day-to-day administration of the Dangme East District.
The two suspended public officers had been quarreling openly for some time now.
Their supporters have been organising demonstrations against one another.
Last Thursday about 4,000 supporters of Mr Buertey, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ada, besieged the offices of the DCE demanding his removal from office.
The demonstrators, who came in a long convoy of mummy trucks and canoes from the rural areas, were joined by the Ada Constituency Executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and occupied the offices of the District Assembly for about two hours.
The demonstration was in retaliation of a similar one held on Wednesday by about 40 supporters of Mr Caesar against the NDC constituency executives and Mr Buertey, for allegedly planning to remove the DCE from office.
The MP's faction, infuriated by Wednesday's action, mobilised in their numbers and carried placards accusing the DCE and Mr Kwamena Ahwoi, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development of corruption.
Some of the placards read: "the DCE must be probed" and "Kwamena Ahwoi is corrupt", in reference to an allegation that the Minister gave the nod to the DCE to renovate a four-bedroom guesthouse at a cost of 365 million cedis.
A detachment of the Police was sent to the assembly to forestall any nasty incidents.
Two supporters of the DCE, Mr Francis Dugbartey and Mr Ernest Otu, however, sustained head injuries and were treated and discharged at the Ada health centre.
The personality clash between the two men started when the DCE allegedly declared his intention to contest for the party's ticket in the 2000 parliamentary elections.
Mr Buertey, the source stated, also intends to stand for the same position for the third time.
On Wednesday, Mr Buertey denied that he and the executives were behind a meeting held at Kunyenya on Thursday, April 29, where the decision to forcibly remove the DCE from office was taken.
