<<Print>>

Campaign Manager for President Mills' re-election bid, Mr. J.H. Owusu-Acheampong says he is unperturbed by a suit brought against him by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) seeking an injunction to bar him from holding himself out as such because he is also serving as a member of a constitutionally mandated body. The former Minister in the Rawlings regime insists the courts should be allowed to pronounce on the matter. "It is their right to try to do what they want but the law would have to take its course. It is what the law will say that is important to me," he stated. President Mills named Mr. Owusu-Acheampong who represents the Brong Ahafo Region on the Council of State as head of his campaign team when he launched it earlier this month. But the Centre for Constitutional Order (CFO) say Mr Owusu Acheampong's purported new role flies in the face of the 1992 Constitution and therefore wants the Supreme Court to declare Mr. Owusu-Acheampong�s appointment null and void. Head of the CFO, Dennis Ofosu-Appiah, who is a civil rights lawyer believes �members of the council cannot do active partisan politics because of their standing in our body politic in the sense that they are supposed to counsel the president in the performance of his duties.� To him, a huge problem could arise if other members of the council take a cue from what the president has done and decide to join the campaign teams of other political parties, and have therefore file a writ at the Supreme Court seeking interpretation. Mr. Owusu-Acheampong said "I have every right to be a chairman of the campaign team because being a member of the Council of State does not preclude me from being a campaign team manager." Asked whether he was going to continue his work as a campaign manager of President Mills, Mr Owusu-Acheampong answered in the affirmative insisting, "I am going to go ahead� I am in Brong Ahafo. I am coming to Accra [and we will consult our lawyers to see how best we can handle this one.� He said the campaign which will run for two months will not prevent him from performing his duties as a Council of State member.