CRC ROUNDS UP MEETING IN VOLTA REGION (PAGE 13, JUNE 19, 2010)

THE Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) has rounded up its consultative meetings in the Volta Region where the people of the region were unanimous that the indemnity clauses in the Constitution should be maintained and not reviewed.
According to them, any attempt to review those clauses would constitute a recipe for chaos likely to endanger the peace currently being enjoyed in the country.
The indemnity clauses set out in the first schedule of the Constitution indemnifies from any legal proceedings, players in coup d’etats that were undertaken by various regimes in the country prior to the coming into force of the 1992 Republican Constitution.
In all, the Commission held consultations in 17 out of the 18 districts of the Volta Region. They could however not hold one in the Biakoye District since that district which was created recently had been inoperative due to a controversy over the siting of its capital.
Mr Eric Delanyo Alifo, the Counsel and lead researcher of the Constitution Review Commission, who headed the operations in the Volta Region told newsmen that the people of the region were definitive on the fact that any attempt to review the indemnity clauses would divide the country and thereby reverse the gains made with regard to national unity and cohesion.
According to Mr Alifo, the consultative meetings in the region had been highly successful, adding that the patronage was “marvelous”.
The next step, he said, was the convening of a regional consultation which would precede a national one before a report would be presented to the President.
He said that a revelation that came up was the fact that the exercise had brought enlightenment to people who hitherto were ignorant about pertinent issues in the Constitution.
“The people said that they had been enlightened on the Constitution through this exercise which means that the people’s knowledge of the constitution was on the low side”, he explained.
He said that opinion in the region was split on the election of District Chief Executives with a slight majority saying that the status quo must be maintained.
They added that should it become necessary to elect DCEs, then the President must nominate a number of them for the people to decide on one through voting.
Opinion on the abolition of the death penalty was also split with a slight majority saying that it should be retained.
On the ceiling to the number of Supreme Court justices, the people of the Volta Region said that there was the need to set a ceiling in order to prevent the situation where the executive arm of government could manipulate the Supreme Court to suit its own agenda and thereby thwarting the course of justice.
The people of the region have also called for the divorcing of the Attorney General from the Minister of Justice so that there would be an institution of an independent prosecution office to handle matterS relating to prosecution while the Minister of Justice could advise the President on legal issues.