Dafeamekpor threatens legal action over re-assignment of ministers without vetting
Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor
The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, has strongly criticised President Akufo-Addo's decision to reassign five Ministers of State to different ministries, labeling it as 'untenable'.
Read full articleHe argues that the revocation of their appointments prior to reassignment necessitates their appearance before the appointments committee alongside new ministers for vetting.
Dafeamekpor has gone further, threatening to seek legal recourse by pursuing an injunction against the vetting of other nominated ministers and seeking legal interpretation from the Supreme Court regarding the reassignment of the five ministers.
President Akufo-Addo, in a ministerial reshuffle announced on Wednesday, February 14, reassigned Mohammed Amin Adam, Henry Quartey, Francis Asenso-Boakye, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Ambrose Dery, and Abdulai Abanga to various ministerial positions.
"If that is not done, I’m serving notice, I will proceed to the Supreme Court to seek interpretation in the matter. And I’m serving notice that I will seek an injunction on the vetting process that those 5 persons cannot proceed to be reassigned and act in their portfolio until the final determination of the matter," he said in an interview on Citi FM's Eyewitness News.
He emphasised that the revocation of the appointments of the five ministers signifies that they are no longer in their ministerial positions and therefore cannot be reassigned.
Dafeamekpor criticised the President for attempting to bypass parliamentary scrutiny of the reassigned ministers, stressing that they should undergo parliamentary vetting since their original portfolios have changed.
He added, "Once you have revoked an appointment of a minister of state, the person is no longer in the position of a minister, for which he can be reassigned to another portfolio. If the President is minded to re-engage those persons he has disappointed some moments ago, he’s permitted under the constitution to do so. But they have to be subjected to the constitutional procedure of appointments."
