Amoo Fired From NADMO

.. Former senior cop replaces him Daily Guide -- Mr. George Isaac Amoo, National Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has been given the sack. His place has been taken by Dr. Kofi Kesse Manfo, former deputy Inspector-General of Police (IGP). No reasons have been given for the apparent shake-up, but Daily Guide has gathered that the former deputy IGP is billed to take over at his new office by next week.

The paper can say that as part of preparations in place, Amoo had already been moved out of his cozy NADMO headquarters chair to the Ministry of Interior, ahead of the arrival of Dr. Manfo.

He was conspicuously missing at a presentation ceremony in Accra on Tuesday, where three organisations including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) presented some items to NADMO to alleviate the sufferings of flood victims in the three Northern Regions.

Sources close to the office told the paper that Amoo was, at the time of the presentation ceremony, mourning with the families of the six victims who were crushed to death by an imploding warehouse then under construction at Gbawe, a suburb of Accra, over the weekend.

Dr. Manfo is the fourth head of NADMO, coming after Kofi Portuphey, Brigadier Odei and Amoo. The former deputy IGP was, a couple of weeks ago, engaged in a ‘battle of nerves’ with his boss and IGP, Mr. Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, over a letter from the latter, asking him to go on retirement.

But in a sharp response, Dr. Manfo said the IGP, also an appointee of the President just as himself, had no right to ask him to go on retirement. The development generated temporary rumpus among some members of the Police Council and the media until things toned down following a retraction by Manfo.

In a round-about twist of events, Manfo apologized to his former boss and retracted his earlier response, after he was allegedly ‘reprimanded’ for his action.

NADMO had been under pressure in recent weeks following days of torrential rains in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, in which 15 people were reportedly drowned and 140,000 others rendered homeless.

According to pictures painted in the media, about 12,844 houses have been washed away and NADMO’s combat-readiness was once more put to the test. Before then, a similar rainstorm in Accra and the recent collapse of the Gbawe warehouse made the media to focus on the effectiveness of the organisation.

However, observers say the idea to send Dr. Manfo to NADMO was in the offing long before the northern rains. Established by an Act of Parliament in 1996, NADMO is tasked primarily with managing disasters and emergencies, preparing plans to mitigate their effects, monitoring and evaluating the establishment of facilities, coordinating international and local support, and other related matters.

According to the Act, “The President shall, in making the appointment of the Coordinator, have regard to the integrity, knowledge, expertise, and experience of the person and in particular his knowledge of the functions of the organisation”.

NADMO as a security-related organ of the Interior Ministry, needs a person with the background of Manfo for the job.

Former senior cop now heads NADMO