Oti Bless' appointment must be withdrawn - Baako urges

The editor-in-chief of the Crusading Guide Newspaper Kweku Baako Jnr has urged President John Mahama to withdraw the appointment of John Oti Bless, Deputy Minister-designate for Local Government and Rural Development for his scandalous comments against the Chief Justice of Ghana Theodora Georgina Wood.

Oti Bless who is also the Nkwanta North MP was heard scandalising the apex court, specifically the CJ, claiming she was manipulating the Bench for political gains.

“Today we have a CJ who because of a Political favour done her, will do anything to help the NPP. It is an agenda. The electoral commission should stop working and give it to Georgina Woode. Why? Meddling in the affairs of the Electoral Commission. And we have a whole CJ, look at how old you are; you have kids and grandchildren and yet you are at the Court doing politics; you deliberately appoint NPP Judges to do politics and scheme with NPP to give biased rulings. Are you not calling for war? Are you not calling for civil war? Are you not destroying this country?” he said when he appeared on the ‘Pampaso’ political show on June 24.

Parliament on Thursday refused to approve the nomination of the Nkwanta North MP after he had been passed by the Appointments Committee of the House.

The House decided to defer his approval following the disparaging comments he made about the chief justice.

On Friday Oti Bless apologised to the Chief Justice hours after he was directed to do so by the Speaker of Parliament Edward Doe Adjaho.

“I wish to sincerely state that I am really sorry for everything that has happened. Let me use this opportunity to render an unqualified apology to the Chief Justice who is my mother and the entire Judiciary, judges, Parliament, good people of Ghana and my constituents," he said in an interview on Citi FM.

But speaking on Multi TV’s news analysis programme Newsfile on Saturday August 6, Mr Baako said: “He [President Mahama] should withdraw his nomination….Of course, vetting has taken place but the president should have withdrawn the appointment. The gentleman is damn lucky, how he escaped this whole Supreme Court scrutiny is weird, I can’t believe it; he ought not be a deputy minister. The president should just forget it.”

“It’s so serious. His (comment) is worse than even the three gentlemen’s. He ought not to be considered at all. Indeed, parliament should do what the Executive failed to do in the Montie 3 case, which the Supreme Court hinted at. Parliament should not approve…this gentleman’s nomination.”