Iddi Muhayu-Deen
A concerned citizen, Iddi Muhayu-Deen, has rubbished the recent description of the appointment by the President of Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani and Dr. Peter Appiahene as part of the Electoral Commission (EC) by CODEO and STAR Foundation as unconstitutional.
During their April 5, 2023 press conference, the two civil society organisations (CSOs) demanded the resignation of the two appointees.
In recalling the matter in a widely circulated statement, he noted that “the graven of their case was that Hajia Salima and Dr. Peter Appiahene were both known affiliates and activists of the governing NPP, among other claims.”
The CSOs, he said, failed to verify their allegations and ended up churning falsehoods.
The facts, according to him, are that “the said Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani is not and has never been married to Sheikh Alhaji T.B. Damba, former NPP National Vice Chairman and Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Explaining, he said that “Alhaji T.B. Damba had four wives, his first wife, Hajia Ayishetu is living in the United States. His second wife is Hajia Balchisu. His third wife is Hajia Hawa of blessed memory. His fourth wife is Hajia Ramatu. So, Alhaji T.B. Damba is currently living with his second wife (Hajia Balchisu) and fourth wife (Hajia Ramatu) in Accra,” he said.
Continuing, he said that “Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani was once married to Alhaji Ahmed Tijani. The couple are now divorced,” adding that there is absolutely no evidence of Hajia Salima Tijani’s involvement in partisan politics unlike as he put it “unlike the woman she has been appointed to replace, Hajia Sa-Adatu Maida, who was appointed to the board of the Electoral Commission by the NDC administration.”
Elaborating, he said that “Hajia Sa-Adatu’s father, Alhaji Maida, was the NDC Chairman in the Northern Region from 1992 until he passed on.”
She also, he said, “contested Hon. Haruna Iddrisu in an NDC Primaries in the then Gukpegu-Saabonjida Constituency of the then Northern Region sometime in the year 2000 thereabout.”
It cannot be said that CODEO, STAR-Ghana Foundation and the other CSOs as well as the media are unaware of all the issues with Hajia Sa-Adatu Maida regarding her relationship with the EC, he said.
Who, he asked, “is more politically exposed than the woman whose father was NDC Chairman and who, herself, contested in NDC Primaries against Hon. Haruna Iddrisu? Are the CSOs telling us they didn’t know of the spirit of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana as can be gleaned from the provisions of Chapter Seven of the Constitution, which they are raising today?” he said.
The only allegation by the CSOs that is factual, he said, “is the claim that one of the step-sisters of Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani, in the person of Hajia Abibata Shani Mahama is serving this country as the current Chief Executive Officer of MASLOC. But if this is the standard that the CSOs want us to use, then I dare say nobody in this country would be qualified to serve on the board of the Electoral Commission because every Ghanaian is somehow related with one person or another in the two major political parties.”
By Ebenezer Amponsah