Assembly members in the Ho Municipality are demanding the removal of the Municipal Finance Officer (MFO) from office, for his failure to assist them in addressing challenges in their areas.
The assembly members, who were clad in red, besieged the Municipal Assembly’s premises and locked up the MFO’s office. They also clamped the office’s car, in a bid to force the MFO’s removal from office.
In an interview, the Presiding Member of the Ho Municipal Assembly, Mawutor Agbe, stated that their action was to send a signal to the MFO’s employers that they needed a change.
“Day in and day out, we do everything possible to address challenges, but we still don’t get results. Yet we have given this man privileges, so today we are stripping those privileges away because we want to send a signal to his employers that we mean business. It is not within our power to sack him, but we need somebody who can help us build the municipality.”
Mr. Agbe said they had been calling for the MFO’s removal for the past three months, but his employers had been unresponsive. As a result, they had to take the drastic step of besieging the Assembly’s premises.
Some assembly members who spoke to Citi News said that the MFO’s actions were putting the municipality at a disadvantage. They called on the Controller and Accountant General to replace him.
Sefadzi Agama, an assembly member for the Ho Municipality, said that the MFO had shown disrespect to assembly members, to the extent of asking the Presiding Member to walk out of a meeting. Agama said that the Presiding Member was rightfully present at the meeting, and that the MFO’s actions were unacceptable.
Sefadzi Agama, Assembly Member, Ho Municipality said the MFO had decided to disrespect assembly members to the extent of “asking the presiding member to walk out of a meeting”.