The National Chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union , Mr A. Y. B. Salifu, has debunked reports that the General Secretary of the union, Mr Napoleon Kpoh has been removed from office by the Executive Council (NEC). “Let me say from the onset that this is not true," he said in a statement at the weekend. The statement, signed by him, added, “There was no NEC meeting at which the NEC discussed and decided to remove the Secretary of the ICU from office. Let me also emphasise that all members of leadership are NEC members and actually lead all NEC meetings. In the case of the so-called meeting purporting to have removed the General Secretary, no member of the leadership attended it". The chairman described the purported removal as "unconstitutional, null and a palace coup" and called on all members of the ICU, as well as Ghanaians, to the move and resist the unconstitutional campaigns of certain members of the union. Explaining the circumstances leading purported removal, the statement said a NEC meeting was held at the end of last year, where the budget of 2007, with a deficit of ¢4 billion, was approved. Mr Kpoh, according to the statement, was not present at that meeting as he was attending to an urgent personal problem. He, however, expressed concern about the deficit and "the union had to live with a very difficult financial budget right from the word go", it said. The statement said in April, this year, the NEC met to plan for the 8th Quadrennial Delegates Conference (QDC) and the budget deficit was considered. A decision was taken to form a committee to source a loan to finance the conference, and the General Secretary was not part of the conference. It said the application for the loan was refused by the bank. The statement said in August, the leadership convened a NEC meeting to brief NEC on preparations for the conference, where some members demanded from leadership alternatives on the way forward. The leadership left the meeting to deliberate while other members took snacks and on their return, they proposed that offices of the union should be moved from the rented premises to its new office complex. The leadership suggested that while there, support could be sought to furnish the lodgings and conference rooms of the facility to ease the financial pressure on the' union. After presenting these proposals and taking a short break, the leadership returned and was told by some members that they held the general secretary responsible for the inability of the union to get the loan and therefore had removed him from office, adding that the Deputy General Secretary for Operations would act in his stead. The statement said that, constitutional provision for the removal of the Secretary, was not resorted to before the members announced their purported removal. It said several reports of intimidation and harassment of some members of staff had been noted and urged all members to "put up the best practice in their work and avoid being politicians instead of employees. Source: Daily Graphic