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CHRAJ boss must step aside – Vitus Azeem

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The Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) Vitus Azeem has supported calls for the head of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to step aside as investigations begin into her misconduct.

Mr Azeem told Myjoyonline.com it is in the interest of Mrs Lauretta Lamptey to step aside until after the investigations.

The Chief Justice Georgina Woode has established a prima facie case of misconduct against the CHRAJ boss who is accused of abusing her office.

Mrs Lamptey is said to have misappropriated $148,000 on her 33-month rent and an additional $180,000 on renovating her official residence.

She, until recently, had been staying in a $450-per-day- hotel, a conduct that raised a lot of uproar in the country.

A Member of Parliament Mr Annor Dompreh as well as another individual, Richard Nyamah sent two separate petitions demanding the impeachment of the CJRAJ boss.

The Chief Justice Georgina Woode constituted an investigative team to conduct a preliminary investigation into the allegation and the team has established a prima facie case against the CHRAJ boss.

Lauretta Lamptey has described the findings as disappointing but  is ready to go the full length to clear her name.

She said in a statement "...I have every respect for our constitutional processes and full confidence in both this process and the recently completed Special Purpose Audit into my accommodation arrangements.”

But it appears the petitioners do not have the same level of confidence in the process if Mrs Lamptey were to be allowed to be at post during the investigations.

Samson Lardy Anyenini, lawyer for Richard Nyamah has called on the president to exercise his powers provided for in law, to have the CHRAJ boss step aside until after the investigations.

He is convinced the presence of Lauretta Lamptey may compromise the investigations, a position Vitus Azeem partly agrees.

"...If she has a case to answer and she is the head of the organisation, I think that it will be good for her to step aside to enable the investigations to go on.

"Because as head, not that we suspect that she can do anything bad but you want to have confidence in the process that nobody is available to interfere with documents or that staff who might be called in to provide evidence might not feel comfortable knowing that their boss is around and the investigation is about their boss," Azeem told Myjoyonline.com.

He added it is normal for Mrs Lamptey to be disappointed in the Chief Justice for establishing a prima facie case, adding, it is not what she feels but it is what the investigator thinks and finds out.

Mr Azeem believes the current brouhaha may have dented the image of the commission but said the action taken against her would repair that dented image.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.