Local government and decentralisation minister Dan Botwe has refuted speculation that President Nana Akufo-Addo’s recent sacking of some 24 municipal and district chief executives was due to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia’s alleged poor performance in those jurisdictions during the governing New Patriotic Party’s presidential primaries.

The president nominated 26 new municipal and district chief executives right after the revocation of the appointments of the 24.

Two others resigned.

Mr Dan Botwe told Accra-based Asaase Radio in an interview that “it is not uncommon to have leaders like Mr President making changes to his team”, adding: “It’s all part of the team-building and working to fulfil the aspirations of the people”.

Debunking the rumours that the axed DCEs were those whose jurisdictions recorded poor results for Dr Bawumia in the primaries, Mr Botwe said: “[You shouldn’t pay heed to it] at all”.

“If you make such statements, it’s obvious that it can only be an opinion because if you make these statements, the statistics should support it”, he noted.

“In all the 261 districts or the 275 constituencies where the elections (primaries) were held, the figures are there; the Electoral Commission and you, the media, have the figures, so one will have to rank them and say the best-performing district from number one to the least-performing district and see whether this supports that assertion. It is totally false”, Mr Botwe noted.