Ex-DCE blames minister for his dismissal

The former district chief executive for Jomoro in the Western region, Mr. Ketiboa Blay, has described as shocking the decision by President Kufuor to terminate his appointment through radio announcement, instead of sending him an official letter to that effect.

He said it is rather unfortunate that the President appointed him as DCE through an official letter but today he is being dismissed not through the same letter but through a radio announcement, adding "this is exactly what NDC was doing and NPP severely criticized it when we were in the opposition."

He claimed to pity the President for giving in to internal pressure to dismiss him but he would not blame him because if one man is always reported to him by his own people. The President definitely has to find a way to set the person aside and this is exactly what he has done, he added.

Speaking in an interview with the Chronicle last Tuesday, Mr. Blay said actually his dismissal has not come to him as a surprise because he believes in the principle that the interest of the assembly but not certain party individuals must first be considered and this did not go down well with some party officials, hence the hatred they had for him.

He was however happy that no body has accused him of being incompetence or have stolen money belonging to the assembly. "I have sacrificed a lot for the development of this district and it is my hope and prayer that whoever takes over from me would continue from where I left off," he added.

Expatiating on what he might have done to incur the displeasure of his party officials leading to his dismissal, Mr. Ketiboah Blay named three main issues which he suspects might have caused his dismissal.

One of such issues, he said, was his insistence that only qualified people with all the requisite papers should be awarded contracts in the district. The other is his opposition to the use of the common fund for other activities apart from the purpose it was meant for. Last but not the least was the assembly's decision to construct a kraal to house animals on transit to Ivory Coast at Elubo, a border town.

Giving detail accounts of the three possible reasons Mr. Blay said when the war broke out in Ivory Coast, the Nigerian and Malian herdsmen decided to use Elubo as a point of entry into Ivory Coast with their cattle.

He told the Chronicle that the avalanche of the cattle in the Elubo township was creating problems for the local residents so the assembly decided to put up a kraal to house the animals. This decision, he contended rather incurred the displeasure of one of the constituency party executives who had put up a makeshift kraal at Elubo and was charging the herdsmen for keeping their animals there.

The said party officials allegedly reported him to the regional minister who also gave him orders to stop the putting up of the kraal, a claim that was denied by the minister when he was contacted.

On the issue of the common fund he said he refused to award contracts to party faithfuls who are not qualified and also use the common fund on things it should not have been used for. This, he continued, incurred the displeasure of the party supporters in the district who started making all sorts of allegations against him, which has now resulted in his dismissal.

When the regional minister was contacted to react to some of the allegations leveled against him by his former DCE he explained that when the Fulani herdsmen started leaving their cattle to roam on the streets of the Elubo town, the constituency chairman of the NPP thought it wise to provide kraal on his own land to house them free of change. This was September 2002.

Mr. Aidoo further said later somebody hinted the chairman that the herdsmen were paying for the housing of the animals up north where they usually make a stop-over before moving to Elubo so he should charge them a token fee which he agreed and started doing so.

According to the Minister the chairman was taking a total of 17,000 CFA from the herdsmen and out of the figure 12,000CFA was going to the assembly with the remaining 5,000 CFA going to the party chairman who had provided the kraal.

He said Ketiboah Blay, who appears to bear his party chairman a grudge thought he was making a lot of money so he quickly decided to put up a kraal at Ankasa in the nane of the assembly and gave an order that no cattle should be sent to the old kraal being operated by his party chairman.

Mr. Aidoo said when what appears to be confrontation between the two were reported to him, he invited both the chairman and Mr. Blay and after a long deliberation, he asked Blay to remove all restrictions he had placed on the operation of the chairman's kraal which had been in existence since September last year. Blay had used the police to stop cattle from being sent to the chairman's kraal.

He assured the two parties that he was going to constitute a committee to study the positions and the standards of the two kraals and based on their recommendations, he may be in position to know whether to stop the party chairman from operating his kraal or not.

"Surprisingly, when Blay got back he wrote to me that he was going to reverse my advice that all restrictions on the operation of the chairman's kraal should be removed," he said adding that a day after he had received Blay's letter, the Jomoro assembly met and passed number of resolutions which were signed by Blay also against his advice.

Hon. Aidoo said it would be unfair for Blay to be going round saying that he the minister had caused his dismissal.

"Even though Blay has shown a lot of disrespect towards me, I have never reported him to any superior officer in Accra save once when l had to react to some negative report he wrote against me to Accra," he added.