By: Foday Manneh
The Local Area Councillors of Janjangbureh Area Council (JAC) have passed and signed a resolution removing Haruna Barry as the Council’s Vice Chairman.
A source told TAT, “Councillors who were most dissatisfied with the VC summoned a meeting on Wednesday, January 25, 2023, and unanimously agreed to pass and sign a resolution to unseat him”.
According to the Local Government Act 2002, a council shall select a Vice Chairperson from among elected councilors who shall serve for the term of the Council unless removed from office.
The same act provided that a Vice Chairperson may be removed from office by resolution supported by a simple majority of the members.
However, our source close to the Council said the Vice Chairperson’s removal was unanimously agreed upon due to the Council’s dissatisfaction with how the former operates.
In December 2022, the Vice Chairperson and the Chief Executive Officer of the Council, Paa Sait Ceesay, disagreed as the Deputy accused the latter of financial mismanagement.
Meanwhile, last week, the duo reportedly clashed over the payment of transport allowance for the Vice Chairman to embark on official duty.
Earlier in September 2022, TAT also reported that JAC passed a resolution led by Hon. Barry to remove the elected Chairperson, Ibrahim Njanko Sanneh, who was sick and away from work for two years.
“He has been misbehaving — accusing people on behalf of the Council without the knowledge of other councilors. Interestingly, he also hid an important letter from the IEC regarding the removal of the Chairman that hurt the councilors,” the insider said.
“He wrote to the Ministry proposing to become the Acting Vice Chairman. They advised him to engage the IEC. When he wrote to IEC too, they replied to him in May 2022, but he kept that letter away from the Council,” the source revealed.
The letter seen by the Alkamba Times dated May 10, 2022, addressed to the Vice Chairman of JAC from the IEC about the “removal of the chairman,” advised the recipient to follow due process in achieving his request.
The source revealed that the councilors were furious to learn about his move to keep the note and consequently realized that he misled them through the resolution they passed to remove the Chairman, which should have been the last point of call,” our source conveyed.
TAT contacted the relieved Vice Chairman for comments. Mr. Barry said he has not received official communication from the councilors and, therefore, cannot make further comments on the matter.
