Lower Manya Krobo Assembly Management Committee inaugurated
The Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (LGDRD), Dan Kwaku Botwe, has inaugurated a nine-member Interim Management Committee for the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly in the Eastern Region with a call on them to exercise their full authority and power as enshrined in the local government Act for the development of the assembly.
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The members, appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, were the Municipal Chief Executive, Simon Kweku Tetteh; the Municipal Coordinating Director, Selorm Kwame Tsibu; the Odumase-Krobo Circuit Court Judge, Kwasi Appiatsi Abaidoo; former assembly member, Emmanuel Nuertey Siakwa, and the representative of Lower Manya Krobo Traders Association, Manye Patience Yawah Ababio.
The rest were Agormanya Chief Imam, Alhaji Inusah Issah; Representative of the Manya Krobo Traditional Council, Nene Teye Adjiso III; Representative of Transport Unions, Philip Batsa, and the representative of Lower Manya Krobo Council of churches, Prophet Isaiah Lawer.
History
The District Level Election in Lower Manya Krobo Municipality deviated from the national one due to a court case against the Electoral Commission (EC) in 2012, thereby changing the calendar of the municipality from the national one.
The assembly was inaugurated as the seventh assembly on January 19, 2019, before the National District Level Elections came off in October, 2019.
As a result, the term of the seventh assembly of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly came to an end on Wednesday, January 18, 2023 hence there was the need to conduct an election to fulfil the constitutional requirement.
Unfortunately, that could not happen because of an injunction from the Koforidua High Court placed on the election by two residents of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality restraining the EC from conducting the election to fill the vacuum.
Mr Botwe quoted the Local Governance Act 2016 (Act 936) section 6, sub-section 3, which provided that whenever a situation like that of Lower Manya Krobo arose in which the EC was unable to conduct a District Level Election, the President might appoint an Interim Management Committee to perform the functions of the assembly until election was held or conducted.
He said the members of the committee, by the nomination and appointment by the President, were given full authority and power which when they fully exercised and used would promote the development of the municipality economically and financially.
“You are to provide guidance, give directives and supervise and exercise administrative authority and functions as the law prescribes.
Local governance is a serious business and when you are given an authority, exercise it fully to achieve results,” he admonished the members.
Funds
Mr Botwe said government was sourcing for other resources for the development of the assemblies and cited Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly and other 34 assemblies as beneficiaries of the project and stressed the need for Ghanaians to support the government in its activities.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Acheampong, said the Coordinating Council was worried because of the vacuum that was going to be created when the court issues arose.
He was, however, happy that both the coordinating council, in collaboration with the chiefs and people of the municipality, had found temporary solution to the challenge until actual election was held.
Open door administration
The Municipal Chief Executive, Simon Kweku Tetteh, on behalf of the committee, pledged that they would discharge their duties and responsibilities for the forward march of the municipality.