Editor of The Herald newspaper, Larry-Alans Dogbey has filed a suit at the High Court seeking Dr. K.K. Sarpong’s appointment as the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) terminated.
The ace journalist indicated that the GNPC boss is way beyond the retirement age, adding that his continuous stay at the state-owned Corporation amounts to illegality.
Larry Dogbey is therefore praying for the intervention of the court to perpetually injunct him from holding himself as the Chief Executive Officer of GNPC.
In his statement of claim, the privately owned newspaper editor pointed out that prior to K.K. Sarpong’s appointment in 2017 “he had attained the compulsory retiring age of sixty years.
“It is the contention of Plaintiff that at the time of his appointment 30 Defendant was 63 years old.”
The plaintiff also averred that the appointment of the GNPC boss by the energy minister-designate who had then not taken office as minister was in clear contravention of Article 80 of the constitution of Ghana 1992 and Section 10(6) of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation Act 1983 (P.N.D.C.L. 64).
The suit filed on September 22, 2021 cited the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, the Attorney General and Kofi Koduah Sarpong as the first, second and third defendants respectively.
“According to Plaintiff the appointment of 3rd Defendant as CEO was right from the outset a nullity and will say the 2nd Defendant who is the Chief Legal Advisor to the President shirked his duty hence the appointment of the 3rd Defendant as chief Executive Officer of the 1st Defendant Corporation at a time that he was 63 years old and now 67 years old.
According to Larry Dogbey, “by all intends and purposes the appointment of 3rd Defendant as C.E.O. of 1st Defendant Corporation at age 63 and his continuous stay in office at age 67 offends against (P.N.D.C.L. 64) especially section 27 of the aforementioned Act, Article 199(1) of 1992 constitution and the Labour Law (Act 651).”
The plaintiff therefore believes Dr. K.K. Sarpong will continue to stay in office if the court does not compel the appointing authorities to terminate his appointment.
