UPPER WEST MINISTER SACKED (PAGE 3, MAY 12, 2010)

PRESIDENT John Evans Atta Mills yesterday relieved Mr Mahmood Khalid of his post as Upper West Regional Minister with immediate effect and asked Mr Moses Mabengba, the Northern Regional Minister, to take temporary responsibility for the Upper West.
A statement signed by the Secretary to the President, Mr J.K. Bebaako-Mensah, gave no reason for the action but the beleaguered Mr Khalid has for some time been under intense pressure from National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists in the region who had persisted with calls for his resignation or removal from office.
A few hours before the Presidential statement, eight persons were arrested, while the Upper West Regional executives of the NDC were invited for questioning by the police after irate youth of the NDC in Wa had stormed the premises of the Upper West Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) and ransacked tender documents which had been sent to the conference room to commence a bidding process.
The staff of the RCC looked on helplessly as the youth, who were about 40 in number, engaged in the ignoble act, compelling Mr Khalid’s bodyguard to fire a number of warning shots, after calling for re-enforcement.
The action was so swift that by the time the police and military personnel arrived at the offices of the RCC, the youth had left with the tender documents on their motorcycles.
The regional minister was at the time of the incident held up in a meeting with some foreign dignitaries.
The situation, for a moment, brought panic among workers and onlookers who wondered what was happening in the relatively peaceful Wa municipality, particularly after hearing the warning shots.
The same youth group had, in the evening of Monday, invaded the old presidential residence where Mr Khalid was holding a meeting with regional executives of the party, including the member of the Council of State from the region, Naa Seidu Braimah.
They disrupted the meeting and deflated the tyres of a pick-up vehicle, with registration number GE 5962 Z, said to be owned by the Regional Vice-Chairman of the NDC, Alhaji Natornaa.
But for the timely arrival of a detachment of policemen who cordoned off the streets and the entrance to the old presidential residence, the situation could have been very nasty.
The youth swore to ensure the removal of the regional minister, saying he was not fighting the cause of the NDC in the region.
They told the Daily Graphic that no amount of pleas from the party chairman would make them soften their stance.
In his reaction, Mr Khalid acknowledged that there had been some disagreements between him and the Regional Chairman of the party, Alhaji Malik Issahaque, which had gone as far as the Presidency.
He said the President asked them to return and patch up their differences and he had made every effort to reconcile with the chairman and bring all on board.
He said after a series of scheduled meetings between him and the regional chairman could not come off, they managed to fix a meeting for Monday.
Mr Khalid said they were at that meeting when a number of motorcycle riders tooting their horns stormed the premises of the old presidential residence and demanded the keys to the pick-up vehicle belonging to the vice-chairman.
He said when the youth insisted, the vice-chairman handed over the keys to the chairman, who in turn handed them over to the regional secretary, Eric Dakurah.
He said the youth then went ahead to deflate the tyres of the pick-up.
The police later had to escort the minister’s vehicle from the old presidential residence to his residence.
Mr Khalid called for calm and said he would continue to extend an olive branch to the youth and all members of the party so that they would unite and work for the good of the party in the region.
He was, however, not happy about the security lapse yesterday which, he said, paved the way for the youth to have access to the RCC premises.
“I alerted the police after yesterday’s incident and so it is unfortunate that this security lapse came in,” he lamented.
As of press time yesterday, the party executives were still being questioned at the police station.
The Daily Graphic also gathered that an emergency Regional Security Council (REGSEC) meeting was to have been held yesterday afternoon to point the way forward.