News:
August 23, 2012
NDC members on the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament are accusing the chairman of the Committee of taking arbitrary decisions.
Member of Parliament for Yape, Amadu Seidu said Kan-Dapaah cannot arrogate powers onto himself by asking the Inspector General of Police to have embattled business man Alfred Woyome arrested and dragged before the committee without consulting committee members.
The committee had summoned Woyome to appear before it after he refused to appear on a previous invitation.
The Committee Chairman, Kan-Dapaah, Thursday vowed to have the IGP drag Alfred Woyome before the committee.
But the NDC member of the Committee said the committee chair cannot take that decision on the spare of the moment.
Amadu Seidu said he was expecting the Chairman to call a meeting of members to decide what line of action to take after Woyome failed to appear for the third time, even in the face of a subpoena.
“The chairman is not the committee, the committee is not the chairman,” he swore.
Alfred Woyome is being prosecuted for causing financial loss to the state in a controversial 51 million cedis judgement debt paid him in 2010 by the government of Ghana.
He refused to appear before the committee with the explanation that the matter is being heard at the courts.
Meanwhile, one of the lawyers for Woyome, Musah Ahmed said their client received the summons an hour before the time he was expected to appear before the committee.
That he said made it impossible for him to appear before the committee.
He said Woyome is a law abiding citizen and has all the way through this prosecution respected the laws of the land.
He said Parliament must stop any calculated attempt to have him arrested.
But the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Doe Adjaho told Joy News per standing order 151, it is only the Speaker of Parliament that has the power to issue a warrant for an arrest of an individual who fails to appear before a committee.
Myjoyonline.com