The group’s leader, Richard Nyamah, filed the petition at the Presidency on Thursday February 18, 2016.
Mr Nyamah argued that Mrs Osei flouted the constitution by continuing to serve as a member of the board of Ghana Reinsurance Company Limited even after she was appointed as EC chair.
Ghana’s laws bar public officers in the stratum of the EC Chair position, which is on the same level as that of a High Court judge, from serving on any other organisation.
The Head of Corporate Affairs of Ghana Reinsurance Company Limited, Mrs Jessica Allotey, said on Thursday January 7, 2016 that Mrs Osei ceased being a board member in December 2015.
Mrs Allotey, who is also the secretary to the board explained in an interview on Asempa FM that: “I can confirm to you that as of January 7, that is today’s date, she is no longer a member of the Ghana Reinsurance board... as of the end of December 2015, I can tell you that as of the end of December she was not a director of Ghana Reinsurance.”
Mrs Allotey stated that the only reason Mrs Osei’s particulars were still published on the official website of the firm, at the time Mr Nyamah raised the issue, was because the IT officials of the company had just resumed from the Christmas break and were yet to update the site to reflect the changes.
“I’m sorry about that, and you know, we have just returned from the holidays. The IT manager is currently working on it. They are updating the website. Some of these things are not easily corrected.”
Responding to questions on why Mrs Osei was added to the list of board members in the company’s diaries for 2016, she said the diaries were procured in the early part of 2015 and nothing could have been done to reverse that decision after her appointment as EC chair.
“With the diaries, these things you need to do them way ahead of time, so, there was nothing we could do about it. That is why her name is still there,” she explained.
Before petitioning the President for Mrs Osei’s removal, the PNF and Mr Nyamah demanded that she resign for the alleged infraction.
Mr Richard Nyamah insisted in an interview at the time that Mrs Osei was still a board member of Ghana Re, which, he said, contravened Article 44 clause 4 of the 1992 constitution which demanded that “if she is the chairman of the EC, she is not supposed to hold any other public office”.
In an interview with Joy FM’s Francis Abban on Thursday January 7, 2016, Mr Nyamah said: “I have a copy of the 2016 diary of the Ghana Reinsurance Company Limited and she is stated as a member of the board. I also have impeccable information that after her swearing in as EC chair of the Republic of Ghana, she travelled to Kenya on an educational conference in 2015, so, she is still an active member.”
In the heat of the controversy, Mrs Osei herself dared Mr Nyamah and the PNF to carry out their threat of petitioning the president for her removal.
The President would have to refer the petition to the Chief Justice who will determine if there is a prima facie case against Mrs Osei, which will necessitate further investigation into the alleged infraction.
A similar petition by the same group last year led to the removal of Ms Lauretta Lamptey from office as Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) last year.
Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3fm
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