Ahead of Mion MP’s question being answered this week on the floor of the House by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice on the status of investigation into the #12 expose done by Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Member of Parliament Abdul Aziz Mohammed had told journalists in an interview on Friday, his interest in the case are in both the President Nana Akufo-Addo and Kwesi Nyantakyi.

“Not only that but the governance of this country; we want to ensure the family members of the president do not take five percent of contracts awarded in this country. This was specific allegation against the President so it is for the image of the president to be cleared; the AG is to appear before the House this week”.

Mr. Abdul-Aziz further noted that there had been specific allegations made against President Nana Akufo-Addo by then President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), then the President Akufo-Addo decided to make a formal complain to the CID of police.

“I want to know if they have concluded investigations, if the President was vindicated in the case or the other way round, and if the AG would have the guts of investigating into the matter”.

The allegation bothers on the number one gentleman of the land, the CID works with the AG so she would be able to tell us if investigation has finished and if there is a court orders on the matter, he concluded.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has cautioned against the use of fake social media accounts to dupe members of the general public.

In a statement, he advised the public not to transact any form of financial business with any unverified account supposed to belong to government officials.

Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business in parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has said the House would have to give priority to urgent bills looking at the long list of bills before the House to be dealt with in this third meeting.

According to the Leader of Government Business, the third meeting is usually a budget meeting where financial policy of the government is considered.

There are forty-eight (48) bills before parliament for the third meeting of the third session of the seven parliament of the fourth Republic to deal with.

After presenting the Business Statement on the floor of the House, Member of Parliament for South Dayi Rockson Dafeamekpor pointed out that the Deputy Majority Leader Sarah Adwoa Safo in her welcome address indicated that there would be a tall order of business but in the business statement they cannot be seen.

But the Majority Leader responded and said chairmen of the various committees together with their rankings had been advised to touch base with their sponsoring Ministers of bills before the House to determine bills that are of urgent nature to be dealt with.

“We have barely four weeks to consider all these bills before the budget estimates and financial policy of government is presented”, he said on the floor of the House.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Former Minister of Petroleum and Member of Parliament for Elembelle, Kofi Armah Buah has served notice that he would place an injunction on the impeding referendum on December 17th 2019, on whether Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) should be elected or not.

According to the Elembelle lawmaker if the Electoral Commission headed by Jean Mensah does not address challenges the electoral registrations exercise has brought about in the Western Region, he will head to court.

“We had about six thousand three hundred people registering in my constituency, but when the register was opened in June for Ghanaians to verify their names about five thousand names were not in the register”.

Mr. Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah said there has been several demonstrations and formal petition written to the District Electoral Commission no avail.

He further lamented over the cumbersome nature his people had to go through before registering as some had to wake up as early as 2:00am to line up to register after the exercise, but in September when the EC opened the register for people to verify their names, the people could not find their names.

“If it were only Elembelle District maybe it might not be too much of a problem to address, there are a lot of districts outside Ellembelle”; he sounded worried in an interview with Journalists in Parliament House.

According to him, they got the District Electoral Officer just to understand what is going on,  “he told me they put all the information in a flash drive sent it to Accra”, but the EC’s answer in Accra when we checked was ‘go and register again’.

The EC does not care, it has gone ahead to announce a day December 17th 2019 for the referendum, what happens to almost half a million Ghanaians who have been disenfranchised?

As to what he wants from the EC, he said the EC has not explained itself about the incident and Ghanaians should be worried about that.

“How can people have their voters ID and the EC cannot explain why their names are not on the exhibition list?”

He further told journalists in Parliament that on Friday he raised the issue with the Speaker of Parliament for the EC chair to come to Parliament to explain issues of the challenges that has arisen.

“If that is not addressed, the EC does not have any business conducting any elections in this country, you guys should see how much money has gone into the exercise and for that to happen in the absence of any explanation and their attitude so far, it looks more deliberate”, he lamented.

“I cannot make this issue up it’s a serious”, he emphasized.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanadistricts.com

Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has retorted to the ranking member on Finance Cassiel Ato Forson on issues relating to the Communications Service Tax (CST).

Member of Parliament for Ajumako Enyan Essiam Cassiel Ato Forson in a statement said the Minister was abusive in addressing issues relating to CST he talked about.

Mrs.  Ursula Owusu-Ekuful told the Minority spokesperson on Finance not to instruct her on how to do her job.

After the directive to the telcos last week, Forson wrote to the Ministry requesting the withdrawal of the fiat which he described as illegal.

In a letter to Ato Forson, Owusu-Ekuful said the lawmaker was in no position to give her orders concerning her job.

Reacting to the minister’s response in a statement issued on Wednesday, 23 October 2019, Mr Ato Forson said: “It is important to note that even though the Electronic Communication Act gives the Minister of Communication the right to issue directives to the regulator in the management of the sector, it does not give the Minister of Communication the authority to issue written directives that are necessary for the administration and implementation of tax laws as stated in Section 1, subsection 1 and 2 of the Revenue Administration Act.

“I had hoped that we could engage in a decent discourse as public officers who occupy transient positions only at the pleasure of the people we are expected to serve with decorum and honour, but it wasn’t to be. Guided by Colossians 4:6: ‘Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man’, I refuse to join you in your brothel”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com