Why petitioners for the removal of Jean Mensa, deputies backed down

A group comprising of 46 Ghanaian citizens have withdrawn a petition they made to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to remove the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, and her deputies.

According to a report by graphic.com.gh, the 46 citizens are part of the pressure group, #FixTheCountry.

The report added that the group had sent in the petition to the president because they believed that the EC bosses played major roles in how the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) were disenfranchised in terms of their representation in the Parliament of Ghana.

However, the group decided to withdraw their petition following the adjournment of the case sine die by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 12, 2023.

“After nearly two years of waiting for institutional action on the impeachment petition brought against the chairperson and deputies of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, we the 46 petitioners formally notified the President and the Chief Justice of our intention to withdraw the petition,” they stated in a statement dated Friday, July 14, 2023, the report added.

The group, in the statement, added that the refusal of the EC to act on the petition was due to a deliberate and collaborationist decision by the then Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin Yeboah, in connivance with the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa.

“We the petitioners, after 2 years of seeing various constitutional officers fail to live up to their constitutional responsibilities in this matter, have become convinced of a lack of interest or urgency in pursuing the justice of our plaint and have as such lost faith in the integrity of the process.

“We feel compelled to exercise our democratic right to withdraw this petition, in order that the Constitution will no further be mocked by the indolence of actors who have been assigned the task of its protection. In reaching this decision, we have considered the best interest of our democracy, and taken further account of our refusal to lend ourselves to any process that will ultimately be used to whitewash clear evidence of egregious misconduct. In addition, we see no reason why we should participate in the persistence of what has so clearly become a charade,” the statement added.

Of all the constituencies in the country, the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) have been left without a representation in parliament.

Although there have been several calls made for them to get representation, the matter has dragged, with no resolution arrived at yet.

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AE/WA