Opinions of Tuesday, 1 March 2011

Columnist: Pii-etey, Joseph

Remove Seidu Tungbani From Office As District Chief Executive

Remove Seidu Tungbani From Office As District Chief Executive Of Wa West District.

The below mentioned group has been monitoring with care and patience the activities of the DCE Hon. Seidu Tungbani since his assumption into office and it came to us as a surprise to the good people of Wa West that we did not hear his name among the list of District Chief Executives who were recently removed from office by the president, H.E John Evans Atta-Mills. It is more surprising that Hon. Seidu Tungbani’s name was not the first on the list. We insist on the removal of Hon. Seidu Tungbani from office as DCE for the following reasons:
1. Hon. Tungbani has misconduct himself as the chairman of the District Security Council (DISEC) as well as a public officer representing an otherwise peace-loving president of Ghana. On the 25th July 2010 Hon Seidu is alleged to have stormed the Wechiau police station, forcibly set free his elder brothers who were in lawful custody and in company of his supporters physically assaulted the complainant. He is alleged to have insisted that he could not work with those police officers and therefore asked for their transfer which consequently let to the transfer of these officers. This act of lawlessness exhibited by the DCE opened the gate way to other people to arbitrary take the law in their hands. In fact the DCE has demonstrated a high level of gross disrespect for the Ghana police service and hence sent out a bad signal that has manifested in the current closure of the District police station as a result of unidentified persons who attacked a police officer in Wechiau Township. As if that was not enough, he is also alleged to have supervised an assault on a teacher at Kpanfa a suburb of Wechiau and also on a local radio station made a strong pronouncement on the good people of Chogsia that they are irresponsible people which have infuriated the community creating a hostile atmosphere for the party. We can no longer boldly say that those communities still fall within our major strong thresholds.

We therefore call on the police to investigate these allegations and let the law take its course.

2. The poor human relation of the DCE is adversely affecting workers and visitors to the district. He intimidates workers as he constantly threatens people who hold different views either than his. He does not learn himself to advice, suggestions and opinions of others. He sees himself as a superman and “Mr. know all” who is always right and everybody else is wrong. Apart from his arrogance, the DCE is snobbish and so impatient, so much so that his anger is easily displayed anytime he disagrees with somebody. He has also been in the trajectory of lies, deceit and the use of “malams” and spiritual powers to make his critics helpless in order to stay in power for his selfish interest.

3. The DCE was also caught in conflict of interest when his wife turned the official bungalow into a nursery of seedlings for the National Afforestation Project (NAP) on contract for her personal gain. She is alleged to have used the district assembly vehicles to draw water to enable her water the seedlings on daily basis. We do not begrudge the wife of DCE for wining a contract to nurse seedlings but the use of public facilities for her private gain is unacceptable. This conduct has provided a lot of ammunitions to the opposition to fire. We believe that the DCE who should have protected public property from abuse should not turn around to encourage such acts in his official residence.

4. The DCE has adopted the leissar-fare leadership style in managing the affairs of the district. Most Staff of the district assembly stay in Wa and commute to work in Wechiau while there are available accommodations for staff in the district. Most of the officers come to work late and close early to enable them travel back to Wa. This has seriously affected productivity and general development in the district. Mr. President, please much of the district funds are drawn for fuel for Officers and as a result accumulating huge debts at filling stations.

In fact the district assembly is only effective when officers only go there to disburse common fund and opening of tender for contracts and become dormant when common fund is fully utilized and contracts awarded. The assembly can best be described as an adhoc assembly under the leadership of Hon. Seidu Tungbani. The continuous stay in office of the DCE means continuous reduction in development in the district.

5. On assuming office Hon. Tungbani embarked upon an agenda to divide the otherwise united and peaceful district among the districts in the upper west region. Apart from his incompetence, he cleverly set out to incite the three ethnic groups against one another. These ethnic groups have coexisted in peace without any problem. Not only has this strange behavior of Hon Seidu Tungbani has the potential of creating insecurity in the district but also dividing the party at the polling station levels. This has since attracted the displeasure of the peace-loving citizens of Wa West. Mr. President his further stay in office will not be the interest of the development of the young and fledging district.

6. There is a serious doubt about the loyalty of the DCE to the ruling NDC. He is alleged to have applied to become a DCE in the defunct NPP in 2005. He was as a matter of fact never a card bearing member of the NDC before his appointment into that office as DCE .No wonder the DCE had never shown any interest the activities of the party. His close associates who are at all times defending his bad attitude towards the welfare of the party and the government as a whole belong to the NPP and often openly boast about enjoying from the sweat of NDC members. He and his cohorts are alleged to be the conduit for NDC party secrets to the NPP camp in Wechiau. To make things worse for us, the DCE has failed woefully to let the good people of Wa West district to let know all what the NDC government is all about. There is limited media coverage on completed government projects. Evident to this is explicitly shown in page 12 of Wa West District Oversight Committee- African Peer Review Mechanism 2010 Annual progress Report. He has virtually restricted his mandate as a DCE to sitting in his office and making travels outside the district for T&T. This does not only siphon the district coffers for fuel but also makes it extremely difficult for people to travel from their communities to interact with him and not the vice versa .
It is our fervent hope that, this step will be considered with all the seriousness that it deserves to prevent the patient, loving, and law abiding people of Wa West from resorting to other alternative ways of getting him out of office. For enough is enough. We wish to conclude by commending the people of Wa West for the tolerance exhibited over the past two years despite the DCE’s unacceptable wrongdoings and the mismanagement of the district. As an action year we hope you will not hesitate to investigate and appropriately liberate the people of Wa West from the grip of this self-styled monarch.

Thank you,

Pii-etey Joseph
Chairman, concern citizens of Wa West
Mobile-0204768641/0207352699
Ngwintige .H.Paul
Secretary, concern citizens of Wa West
0265761474/0240987857