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The deputy minority whip and MP for Banda, Mr Ahmed Ibrahim has called on Parliament to be very careful not to rush through the approval of lithium agreement for the benefit of Ghanaians.

He explained that, there have been several agitations and accusations by civil society organizations and other citizens calling for transparency in the lithium agreement; therefore Parliament must open its eyes on the consideration and approval of the agreement.

Mr Ahmed made these remarks when the minister for lands and natural resources, Mr Samuel Abdulai Jinapoh appeared before the House to lay the agreement but was not successful due to lack of quorum.

He further argued that the paper to be laid never came before the Business Committee; and the agreement was appearing before the Order paper agendum but the nation should be carried along with this agreement.

Additionally, he argued that time should be given to leadership of the Mines and Energy Committee to meet the sector Minister.

This forced the Speaker to suspend the House for less than an hour but when the House came back no Business was done before the House adjourned.

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First Deputy Minority whip, Ahmed Ibrahim has sent a message through the leadership of the Majority to their flagbearer Dr. Mahamoud Bawumia and his running mate Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh to release MPs on the Majority side of the House to come to Parliament to do government business.

According to him the Minority MPs come to the floor of the House in their numbers every day but the Majority MPs are never present.

“What I want to say is that, government must bring government work and ensure that their side comes in their numbers. They have been given four years mandate; flag bearer is in the North and the running mate in the Western Region, you are campaigning the MPs are following you instead of coming to the chamber to do government business”.

Again, you have four months, one week to be in government, who should do the work? You are thinking of breaking the eight (8) and not solving the problems, he noted.

He further threatens that they would invoke order 104 which raises issues of quorum. “You are breaching the constitution and standing orders; you are calling for the renewal of mandate, we cannot come to the House and be working and you are in our constituency campaigning. We mean serious business and do not want to be victims of that, if your one hundred and thirty eight is not here we would also sign leave of absence for our members to go and be campaigning”, he cautioned on the floor of the House.

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The first deputy Minority whip, Ahmed Ibrahim has urged leadership of Parliament to ensure that the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Identification Authority (NIA) are invited to brief the Committee of the whole on their activities in recent times.

According to him this would help the House to be on the same page with the two institutions as there have been complains of their activities in recent times by Ghanaians.

He further indicated to the House that, the National Peace Council has gone ahead to have a meeting with the EC and they have proposed that in 2028 Ghana card should be the sole mandatory document without listening to parliament.

Again, as representatives of their constituents they need to be listened to as solution is found to the problem of making the Ghana card the sole document to qualify one for getting a Ghanaian voters ID.

Again, the EC has complained about the struggles they have to go through before they get funds to carry out their constitutional required mandate and have been urging Parliament to intervene in this regard, hence his call when the Business Statement for this week was presented to the floor of the House.

Meanwhile, an appeal has been made for the Interior Minister to be brought to the House to brief it on steps to stem the serial killing ongoing in Bole and Wa Central.

Majority chief whip Frank Annoh Dompreh who presented the Business Statement could not agree more with first deputy Minority whip.

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The 3rd Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana recorded two independent MPs including Joseph Kojo Akudibillah and James Victor Gbeho.

Joseph Kojo Akudibillah born January 1948 is also a Ghanaian diplomat and currently Ghana’s Ambassador to the Vatican.

James Victor Gbeho (born 12 January, 1935, in Keta, Ghana), represented the people of the Anlo constituency. He is a lawyer and diplomat and was once the President of the ECOWAS Commission from 2010 to 2012. He served under both Presidents Jerry John Rawlings, and John Atta Mills.

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Emmanuel Kofi Armah Buah, Deputy Minority Leader in Ghana’s parliament cannot fanthom how it is easy to travel from the West African sub-region to Europe than from among sub-regional countries.

Mr. Buah, a Ghanaian representative in the ECOWAS Parliament said, “It’s difficult to travel from Ghana to Sierra Leone; but how come it’s easy to visit Europe and America from the sub-region, and what are we doing to address this?”

As to what the Parliament is doing to help address the whole issue of Free Movement of ECOWAS citizens in the wake of high ticket prices and transport fairs, he noted in an interview that it is not an issue for the Parliament to intervene.

He said the focus should rather be to create a conducive economic atmosphere that would propel investments in the region; a situation that would generate healthy competition. “If we have enough airlines, prices would go down, prices of fuel would go down and that of tax in member states as well”.

Again, when we have a critical look at these things the market would transform itself we should focus on some of these things.

He asserts that things about ECOWAS should be prioritized if we want to achieve results and make positive impacts.
“We should not treat ECOWAS as an afterthought; ECOWAS should not be looked at when we are less busy, ECOWAS should be our focus, the objective of setting up ECOWAS is very relevant today and like the time it was founded we need to move faster than we are moving now”.

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Mr. Samuel Atta Akyea, the Chairman of the ad hoc committee investigating a leaked tape regarding a plot to remove the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. George Akuffo Dampare from office, has criticized the committee’s report, describing it as ‘anaemic’ and lacking substance for any parliamentary action.

According to the chairman he failed to sign the report that accused three senior police officers—COP Alex George Mensah, Supt. George Lysander Asare, and Supt. Emmanuel Eric Gyebi of misconduct; a major offence under police regulations, recommending they be sanctioned according to police disciplinary procedures.

However, during the Parliamentary debate, Mr Akyea urged the House to reject the report, citing that it lacks logical foundation.

He further said, “I want to submit with the greatest of respect that this report reduced parliament and the good committee of parliament to a conveyor belt that anything they drop on it should go. You do not just listen to people who come before a committee and that will bring you to a conclusion of the matter. You delve into the matters. A committee of parliament is not a conveyor belt. They’re supposed to delve into this matter. And on that showing, this report is so anaemic.”

In addition, “It lacks substance for plenary to find, with the greatest of respect. I urge this House to reject this report because there is no foundation of evidence for this report. And we shouldn’t make a resolution based on such an anaemic report.”

In response, Mr. James Agalga, the Vice Chairman of the ad hoc committee, countered Akyea’s remarks, accusing him of misrepresenting the facts.

“Mr. Speaker, quite a number of issues have been raised, which constitutes a gross misrepresentation of the facts and of the report…in the course of the committee’s deliberations, the chairman had the opportunity to raise the arguments that he has canvassed before this house this evening that we could not elevate conspiracy to the level of our criminal jurisprudence under section 23 of the criminal and other offences act and we all agreed as a result of that intervention.”

Finally, the majority leader, Mr Alexander Afenyo Markin in his contribution added that, the NPP government led by President Akufo-Addo would never remove the IGP from his position as some members of NDC Minority are trying to portray to Ghanaians that, President Akufo-Addo wants to base on the committee’s report to get Dr Dampare out of office.

He explained that, looking at the good job of the IGP and reforms he is introducing would sure meet some opposition because some people who benefit from the old ways of doing things would surely dislike the new reform.

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Deputy Minority Leader in Ghana’s Parliament and a member of Ghana’s delegation to the Community Parliament, Emmanuel Kofi Armah Buah said for the sub-region to make impact, it is not for each individual member states being prosperous but the prosperity of all member states.

According to him being in the ECOWAS Parliament is an eye opener, fighting for the fundamental issues that addresses the bread and butter matters for the Community citizens.

In an interview he noted that Ghana cannot develop in isolation leaving the other member states, and pointed out further that in Ghana’s capital Accra it is visible the number of children of Niger, Burkina Faso origin along the streets begging; hence the need to prosper together.

“You will see yourself overwhelmed as a Nation by all these immigrants hence the need to have development plans and we should look beyond our borders, think beyond our borders”.

“Again, the ECO dream, what are we doing to ensure that it is realised and implemented? Look at the financial sector, the cost of foreign exchange, member states changing money into dollars. We have a long way to go, and until we address these things as a bloc we would not move forward if we continue to tackle them as individual member states.”

“We should think bigger than our tiny countries, so that we are not pushed around by smaller countries coming for summit, we are there with cup in hand those are the things that we were warned against by Ghana’s first president Dr. Kwame

Nkrumah and those visionary leaders of his time. If we do not move faster and together we would find ourselves where we are; we need to go back and pick those pieces”.

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The Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Kofi Armah Buah has urged the Minister for Interior to immediately halt the recruitment process of eleven thousand security personnel and rather open the process up for Ghanaians to participate in it fairly.

According to him the ongoing process is opaque and dismissed assertion that it is as a result of back log over the years.

At a press conference address by the Deputy Leader on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, he pointed out that the police administration on July 7, 2023 in a press statement indicated that they do not have any back log hence the Minority is surprised at the turn of events.

And instead of advertising the recruitment process as has been the normal practice the sector Ministry is hiding under the guides of backlog in other to recruit supporters of the ruling NPP government into the security service saying this does not need advertisement as a result of backlog.

Immigration personnel expected to be recruited are three thousand, Ghana police personnel five hundred, prison service five hundred and narcotic five hundred

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At the ongoing first Ordinary Session of the 6th Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament in Abuja Nigeria, lawmakers have commended Liberia for appointing the first-ever female defense Minister, Brigadier General Geraldine George.

The MP gave the commendation during the presentation of the Country’s report by the leader of the delegation Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.

That notwithstanding, the MPs were not enthused about some treatment being meted out to the former President George Weah including being denied access to a VIP lounge.

A member of Ghana’s delegation to the 6th Community Parliament, Samson Ahi in his contribution to Liberia’s Country report commended the country for giving a very detailed report on current happenings in the country.

I was going through the report and was thinking that things were going on very well in Liberia. But at a point I have to change my mind, when i noticed that the former President was denied access to the VIP lounge, a development I think not good enough, he stated.

Again, I was expecting the report to commend the former president because of what he did in the elections. You hardly find a sitting president would lose less than forty thousand votes and just agree to transfer power; this is a mark of statesmanship and I was expecting the report to commend him highly but I do not know why they decided not to commend him, Mr. Ahi noted.

Hon. Ahi joined his colleagues to further commend a good development in Liberia and noted that he is not commending them for appointing a female as first defense Minister, but the fact that she was appointed as deputy defense Minister by the previous government and when there was change over the current government elevated her as substantive Minister.

“That is a good ternate of democracy; look at the talent of the person, if the person has the capacity to help irrespective of the person’s background you have to give the person the opportunity”.

However, he was not happy the report did not give information on how the Liberian government is putting in measures to deal with drug abuse in the Country.

In the case of Guinea he indicated that he was happy their delegation are back in the ECOWAS Parliament which has been their prayers and hope others like Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali would return to the fold.

He flawed Guinea on grounds that their Country report is not detailed enough; and hoped they would improve it during the second Ordinary session when they are presenting their country report.

He also questioned their efforts at returning to democratic rule which was not specified in the report.

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Chairman of the Public Account Committee, Dr. James Klutse Avedzi has clarified on the floor of Parliament that Parliament and the Attorney General are yet to act on the Committee’s recommendation for prosecution of entities and individuals cited for various infractions.

According to him a follow up with the Attorney General and Minister of Justice’s office revealed that Parliament is yet to communicate with them on referrals for prosecution.

Similar checks in Parliament also confirmed that the clerk of parliament is yet to sign the letter to be forwarded to the AG’s outfit.

“It would be good if the clerk signs the letter, so that it can be communicated to the AG for action to be taken”, he emphasized.

A member of the Committee, Rockson-Nelson Etse Dafeamekpor further added that it was when the Attorney General appeared before the Public Account Committee (PAC) and they enquired on progress of recommendations for prosecution that it came out that the AG has not received any recommendation from Parliament for prosecution.

He added that the law establishing the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) without information emanating from the Legislature, they can go ahead and take action on issues coming out of the public hearing of PAC.

The MP also backed the Chairman’s call for the letter to be transmitted from Parliament to the AG’s office for action to be taken.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com