Former President John Mahama has described as an “abhorrent nation-wrecking prejudice”, the “crude” branding of forcefully-retired Auditor-General Daniel Yaw Domelevo as a Togolese by the Audit Service Board.

The Audit Service Board recently wrote to Mr Domelevo challenging his Ghanaian nationality and age, a day ahead of his resumption of work after his 167-day forced leave.

The Board said his own Social Security and National Insurance Trust records show he is a Togolese and not a Ghanaian and also due for retirement.

The Board, in a series of correspondence with Mr Domelevo, said he was born in 1960 per his own records and, thus, should have gone on retirement mid-2020.

In a letter dated, 26th February 2021, the Audit Service Board said: “Records at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) completed and signed by you indicate your date of birth as 1st June 1960 when you joined the scheme on 1st October 1978. The records show that you stated your tribe as Togolese and a non-Ghanaian. That your home town is Agbatofe.”

“On 25th October 1992, you completed and signed a SSNIT Change of Beneficiary Nomination form, stating your nationality as a Ghanaian and your home town as Ada in the Greater Accra Region. The date of birth on your Ghanaian passport number A45800, issued on 28th February 1996 is 1st June 1961. That place of birth is stated as Kumasi, Ashanti Region,” the letter said.

In his reply, Mr Domelevo explained that his grandfather, Augustine Domelevo, was a native of Ada in the Greater Accra Region but migrated to Togo and stayed at Agbatofe.

“Either my father wrongly mentioned Agbatofe in Togo as his home town to me, or I misconstrued it at the time”, Mr Domelevo explained, adding: “My mother is also a Ghanaian”.

Concerning his date of birth, Mr Domelevo said he noticed that the 1960 date of birth was a mistake when “I checked my information in the baptismal register of the Catholic Church in Adeemmra.”

“The register has Yaw as part of my name and also provides my date of birth as 1st June 1961 – this corresponds with Thursday or Yaw – the day of the week on which I was born.”

The Audit Service Board, however, said: “Observation of your responses and explanations contained in your above reference letter make your date of birth and Ghanaian nationality even more doubtful and clearly establishes that you have made false statements contrary to law.”

“Records made available to the Board indicate that your date of retirement was 1st June 2020 and as far as the Audit Service is concerned you are deemed to have retired,” it noted.

“By a copy of this letter, the Board is informing the President, who is your appointing authority, to take necessary action. Additionally, the Board is making available to the President all the relevant documents at our disposal.”

Addressing journalists Thursday night (4 March 2021) about his rejection of and qualms with the Supreme Court judgment on the election petition he filed to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential results, Mr Mahama bemoaned the frequent tagging of “certain ethnic” groups as “foreigners”, just as has been recently done to Mr Domelevo, who he appointed in the dying embers of his first term in 2016 just before handing over to President-elect at the time, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Adducing evidence to buttress claims, Mr Mahama said: “We cannot forget the burning issue of the deliberate exclusion of the good people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe and Lolobi (SALL) from the parliamentary election of 2020. This constitutes, perhaps, the gravest injustice of the 2020 elections. It can easily fit into the worst forms of electoral trickery ever witnessed in our nation’s history”.

He continued: “Despite the shenanigans employed by the conspirators in this issue, it is abundantly clear that the rights of the people of SALL to vote, was intentionally violated as part of a move to ensure the predetermined election outcome of a particular Parliamentary constituency”.

“This represents unparalleled abuse of power by both the government and its handmaiden, the Electoral Commission, to influence the outcome of the Parliamentary election in Hohoe”.

He said: “It is even more staggering that no one has stepped forward to take responsibility for this unjustifiable action nor indicated any clear remedy for the harm caused. We cannot as a people countenance this kind of gerrymandering and chicanery in our politics. We must with one accord, demand immediate resolution of the impasse in the SALL area and take urgent steps to afford the people their right to vote and be represented”.

The former President noted: “We entered the 2020 elections against an incumbent that was determined to abuse power and misuse state resources and institutions to achieve electoral victory. The run-up to the election and some of the processes involved were characterised by intimidation and harassment from state security agents and others loyal to the current regime”.

“Selective deployment of military personnel was used as a tool to instil fear in some of our citizens to dissuade them from taking part in the voter registration and other processes. Others were falsely branded as foreigners and their citizenship called into question unjustly – an abhorrent nation-wrecking prejudice which has been directed, especially against certain ethnic groups of this country and has continued till date and has even recently been visited crudely on the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo”, he bemoaned.