[ 2012-07-27 ]

President Mahama must appoint Vice President now - Ayikoi Otoo
A former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice,
Mr Ayikoi Otoo, has advised President John Dramani
Mahama to immediately appoint a Vice President to
avoid lobbying and power wrangling.

In accordance with Article 66 of the 1992
Constitution, the then Vice President Mahama was
sworn into office by the Chief Justice Mrs Justice
Georgina Theodora Wood, six hours after President
Mills had given up the ghost at the 37 Military
Hospital.

“It will be in the interest of the nation for the
President to, as matter of urgency, appoint his
Vice President because the earlier he does that
the better it will be for Ghana,” Mr Otoo stated
in a telephone interview with graphic.com.gh.

He said Article 60 (10) of the 1992 Constitution
mandated the President to nominate his Vice upon
assumption of office subject to approval from
Parliament.

According to Mr Otoo, the grey area in this
provision was the absence of a stipulated time for
the appointment of the Vice President because the
manner in which the provision was couched did not
give the President a time limit to do that.

To tackle such lapse, he pointed out that it was
good the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC)
suggested 14 days within which the President could
appoint his Vice but maintained that such
provision was not law yet and could, therefore,
not be applied.

He said it was unfortunate for Ghana to lose a
sitting President, and thus wished the former
First Lady and the late President’s family well in
these sad moments.

“We have all lost a President and we must mourn
him befittingly,” the former Attorney-General
said.

The whole country and the international community
were thrown into a state of shock and grief when
the Chief of Staff, Mr Henry Martey Newman,
released a press statement announcing the death of
Prof. J.E.A. Mills on July 24, 2012.

Prior to that social media had been inundated with
questions on whether or not it was true Prof.
Mills had passed on.

Telephone lines jammed immediately his death was
announced as Ghanaians from both home and abroad
made frantic calls to find out the truth or
otherwise of the death of Prof. Mills.

Source - Daily Graphic

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