Author: Akumaa GhanaMPs

Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Prof. Aaron Michael Oquaye has said there is no way Ghana will succumb to the liberalization of the world by accepting homosexuality as part of its culture.

Same sex marriage, he noted, is abomination since the culture, religion and traditions of the Ghanaian set up frowns on it.

“It is unfortunate that people have become so liberal that they want to liberalise Christianity. I believe these are some of the challenges of this modern world which are manifest of abomination”, he noted.

According to him “Parliament will do its best to strengthen its laws against homosexuality.”

The Speaker made this remark Monday, February, 20, 2017, when the Founder of the Royal House Chapel International, Apostle General Sam Korankye Ankrah and the leadership of his church, paid a courtesy call on him to solicit the support of Parliament to help sanitize religion in the country.

Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah was specifically concerned about the proliferation of churches in the country, which in his view, was affecting the work of God.

He believes that so many church leaders have taken the advantage of being men of God to abuse the fundamental human rights of their church members.

Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah noted that once the churches operate within the confines of the country, they should subject themselves to the laws of the land, arguing that the practice of religion does not supersede the constitution of a country.

Prof. Aaron Oquaye commenting further said it was about time the church regulates itself by putting in place internal mechanisms to help them do so.

In his contribution, the Minority Leader, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu said he wholeheartedly welcomes the pronouncement of the Speaker on homosexuality.

”I am encouraged today that if the world is in doubt about Ghana’s stance of homosexuality, the Speaker has said it all that same sex marriage is an abomination to God”, he emphasized.

The Joe Ghartey-led Ad hoc Committee has granted a request by North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to appear as a witness to testify in the committee’s probe into the bribery allegation that has hit the leadership of parliament’s Appointments Committee.

This follows a threat by Mr Okudzeto to sue, if the committee denied him the chance to appear as a witness in the committee’s sittings.

The Chairman of the committee, Joe Ghartey at sitting Friday said the committee has duly received the petition of the North Tongu MP, Okudzeto Ablakwa and is taking steps to furnish him with the transcript of proceedings of last Wednesday’s sitting which the first witness, Joe Ghartey appeared before it.

“When he receives it, I think he would be in the position to come before us. This is the decision of the committee relating to the request of Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa” Mr. Joe Ghartey said.

Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, when he appeared before the committee Wednesday reiterated that Mr Ablakwa confessed that the Minority made the bribery allegation against Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko to equalize the bribery claims against former President John Mahama, and that they meant it as a joke, a claim which the North Tongu MP has since denied.

The Ad hoc Committee thus adjourned sitting to Monday, February 20, 2017 following the committee’s inability to hear other witnesses billed to appear before the committee Friday.

The chairman of the committee said it was making earnest efforts to supply all witnesses with the necessary information on proceedings so far so they could be well informed, hence deferring hearing to the said date.

All three witnesses in the bribery case, including, Minority Chief whip, Muntaka Mubarak, the Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga, and North Tongu MP, Okudzeto Ablakwa have been asked by the committee to stand by on Monday, when proceedings resume.

The former deputy Minister for Education, , has petitioned the Ad hoc Committee investigating the bribery allegation that has hit the Appointments Committee of Parliament to allow him appear before the committee to clear his name.

His request follows claims made by the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Joseph Osei Owusu when he appeared as witness before the Ad hoc committee on Wednesday that Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa confessed cooking up the bribery allegation.

Mr. Osei Owusu, appearing before a five-member Committee said “in the conclave, after they had shown that they [Minority] were satisfied and were willing to withdraw their objection and agree for their report to be amended that Hon Osafo Maafo and Boakye Agyarko be passed by consensus, we were going to leave and I said: ‘No. There was this allegation already in the public domain, and Honourable Ayariga is the one alleged to have made that allegation, so, we should discuss that matter after meeting.’

“All the Minority members said was [that]: ‘Mr Speaker, cool down, cool down’. And I said: ‘How can I cool down? This allegation is already in the public domain’. It was at that point that Okudzeto Ablakwa said, ‘Because Agyarko said our president (Mahama) was corrupt, we were spreading the corruption allegation’. The mood in the room changed afterwards.”

But  Ablakwa in a Facebook post has since rubbished the claims describing same by Mr. Osei Owusu as nothing but a desperate, malicious and cancerous fabrication which would not be allowed to fester.

The Ad hoc Committee at its first sitting stated that it will invite four witnesses namely; Joseph Osei Owusu, Mr Boakye Agyarko, Mohammed Muntaka and Mr Mahama Ayariga.

However Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa in a letter written on his behalf by his lawyers said ” we have been instructed by our client to convey to you, which we hereby do, his desire to appear before your committee to be heard on the above allegation and to provide evidence that would assist your committee to reach a fair and true conclusion on this substancially important matter of public interest.”

It added: “Please note, Honourable Chairman, that we have advised our client on all the legal and constitutional options available to him should he be refused the opportunity to be heard in his own defence before your committee.”

Background

Mr Mahama Ayariga, on Friday 27 January, claimed GHC100,000 was given to Mr Osei-Owusu by Energy Minister-designate at the time, Mr Boakye Agyarko, to be distributed to Minority MPs on the Appointments Committee with the intention of influencing them to give him the nod so he could be sworn in as Minister.

Mr. Ayariga, who is a member of the Appointments Committee, told Radio Gold in an interview that the Minority MPs rejected the GHS3000 each which was enveloped for them when they later found out that the money was coming from Mr Agyarko as a bribe.

The Ad Hoc Committee set up to investigate the bribery allegation that has hit the Appointments Committee of Parliament has said it will not grant any media interviews once it has begun public hearing into the matter.

According to the Committee, given that the hearing is being broadcast and televised live, it is important that members remain quiet lest they are accused of being bias by witnesses who’ll appear before the committee.

At the commencement of its sitting on Wednesday, February 15, 2017, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee, Hon Joe Ghartey announced that the Committee has by consensus agreed to invite only four (4) witnesses to assist it to discharge its mandate given to it by Parliament.

The witnesses include the 1st deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu, Minority Chief Whip, Hon Mohammed Mubarak-Muntaka, MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga and the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko.

The Committee, according to the Chairman, has the responsibility among other things establish whether the 1st deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu took money (GHC100,000) from the Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko and gave or to the Minority Chief Whip for it to be distributed to Members.

The Ad Hoc Committee is to also establish whether there were attempts to bribe the Appointments Committee Members.

But Hon. Joe Ghartey has made it clear that no member of the Committee will be part of any public post hearing discussion.

“We’re not discussing this matter, we have given you the opportunity to listen to us…we’re not going to hold post hearing discussions. Don’t call us…we’ll not answer the questions, when we leave here don’t thrust a mic into my face, I’ll not speak to you, not because I don’t want to speak or I don’t want the public to hear.

But it’s because we’re holding the hearing in public, what else cab we do you and at the end of the day the report that we’ll bring forward will be chamber and it will be discussed in public. So please allow us to do our work, if we speak the persons who will appear before the committee will say we’re bias. So please we’re not communicating with the media…that doesn’t mean there’s a media blackout, a word to the wise is enough.”

President Akufo-Addo’s nominee for Western regional minister Dr. Kwaku Afriyie has lamented the state of development in the region despite its unparalleled natural resource potential.

The Western region is blessed and cursed he said during his vetting before the Appointments Committee of Parliament Tuesday.

Profiling the resource base of the region, Dr. Afriyie who is also a former minister for Lands and Natural Resources and incumbent MP for Sefwi Wiawso said 60 percent of Ghana’s chief foreign exchange earner cocoa farming goes on in the region.

“Virtually 100 percent of rubber estates and 40 percent of palm oil plantations are also in the region along with the only bauxite mines at Ayaso,” he said.

The Western region holds a significant forest reserve in addition to deposits of manganese and has also overtaken the Ashanti region as the leading gold producing region in Ghana.

The country latest natural resource discovery, oil was also found in the Western region. Ghana, per the region’s Jubilee partners struck oil in commercial quantities in 2007 in the Western Region.

But three years after this discovery, the chiefs in the region decried marginalisation in the development of the country and complained that the region has nothing to show for despite its resource contribution.

In a move which the regional House of Chiefs described as “act of desperation”, the chiefs petitioned parliament for 10 percent of oil revenue to be dedicated to the region.

Although the demand was later withdrawn, it re-surfaced barely six years later with a call for 20 percent allocation.

Taking this account into consideration, the nominee said there is a general feeling in the region that it is among the neglected in the country.

While he won’t back the call of an allocation of oil revenue, he said there can be other ways of ensuring the region gets its fair share of the national cake.

Photo: President Akufo-Addo introduces his pick for Western regional minister Dr. Kwaku Afriyie

“Our roads are the worse in this country”, he said explaining that because the region has the highest rainfall in the country, roads deteriorate much faster than in others.

He said governments have often used the heavy rains the region experiences as an “excuse” to explain away the poor state of roads.

He said at the peak of the spread of HIV/AIDS, the prevalence rate recorded in the mining areas was one of the worst in the country.

Touching on the disruptive effect of illegal mining in the region, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie said he would need “24 hours to give you a whole lecture on environment degradation”.

The Western regional minister-designate said the call for development to match the region’s resource contributions is not a “jingoistic” demand.

“If government does not invest in Western Region, Ghana will forever remain poor” he warned. Dr. Kwaku Afriyie who is also a cocoa farmer said although Western region uses 1.6 hectares of land for cocoa farming, Ivory Coast which uses the same land size, exported more than 1.7 million tonnes of cocoa. Ghana did about 700,000 tonnes.

He found this disparity regrettable noting that Ghana has all that it takes to do two or three times more than it currently exports for cocoa if the right investments are made in the Western region.

With the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government plan to establish a factory in each of Ghana, 216 district’s, the regional minister-designate wants to suggest a cocoa waste processing factory in Sefwi area.

He said as a regional minister he will work to influence policies that affect his region.

“I will not be a static minister” he vowed to get involved in tackling the region’s problems.

The five-member Ad Hoc committee set up by Parliament to inquire into the alleged bribery scandal that has hit the Appointments Committee has been reconstituted.

MP for Juaben, Hon. Ama Pomaa Boateng, who was shortlisted among the likes of Hon. Joe Ghartey (Chairman), Hon. Ben Abdallah Banda (Member), Hon. B.T. Baba (Member), and Hon. Magnus Kofi Amoatey (Member), has been substituted with the honourable Member for Assin North, Abena Durowaa Mensah, taking over here role.

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who moved the motion for the reconstitution of the five-member committee on the floor of the House, Friday, told Members that the amendment has become necessary following the recall of the ECOWAS Parliament of which the honourable Member for Juaben is a member.

Other Members of the ECOWAS Parliament are; Kwasi Ameyaw-Kyeremeh, Osei Bonsu Amoah, Alexander Afenyo-Markins, Kwabena Appiah-Pinkrah, Clement Kofi Humado, Mahama Ayariga and Sampson.

The Members will be away for two weeks.

The five-member Ad Hoc Committee has within 30 days to submit its report.

Ministers-designate for the President’s Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson, has extended a hand of friendship to H. E. John Dramani Mahama, begging the former President to let it go of her sins against him.

The Awutu Senya East MP is on record to have insulted Mr Mahama during the 2016 electioneering campaign, likening him to a mad man in an interview she granted to Pink FM, a local radio station during the sod cutting ceremony of the Kasoa Western by-pass road network.

She is also reported by peacefmonline.com that Mr. Mahama was competing “with the devil for the crown emperor of lies and deceit” and the former Ghanaian leader was a serial liar.

However, on Tuesday when Hon. Hawa Koomson was being vetted by the Appointments Committee she told Members that she regrets using those unprintable words against the former President.

“Yes, I do regret using those words because it a political talk and I am sorry for that,” she humbly pleaded.

She added “I retract and apologize for using those words.”

She further told the Committee that when offered another opportunity she will not repeat those unprintable words again.

Some three more Ministerial nominees of the President will later today, February 7 face the Appointments Committee.

They are Isaac Asiamah, Minister-designate for Youth and Sports, Mavis Hawa Koomson, Minister-designate for Special Development Initiatives and Awal Mohammed for Business Development.

On Monday February 6, the committee vetted Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Professor George Gyan-Baffour and Catherine Afeku, Ministers-designate of Parliamentary Affairs, Planning, and Tourism, Culture & Creative Arts, respectively, pending their approval and subsequent swearing in.

The vetting process is scheduled to continue  till Thursday February 9.

The Appointments Committee of Parliament will, Monday, continue sittings to publicly hear nominees who have been designated to various ministerial positions by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Three nominees are expected to appear before the Joseph Osei Owusu-chaired committee.

They are Hon. Catherine Abelema Afeku, Ministers designate for Tourism, Creative Arts and Culture, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, and Hon. Prof. George Gyan-Baffour, Ministers designate for Planning.

Surprisingly, all the nominees are Members of Parliament.

Therefore, they are expected to spend some few hours during their public hearing unlike those without MP status.