News:
June 25, 2021
A member of the Majority side on the Appointment Committee of the 8th Parliament Samuel Atta Akyea has set the record straight by pointing out that the Rt. Hon speaker Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin never directed the Appointment Committee to suspend its work on Friday, June 11, 2021 to undertake tree planting as part of ‘Greening Ghana’ project.
According to him statement made by the Speaker was an appeal because the Committee had already made its arrangement to undertake the said activating of vetting deputy ministers designate long ago before the announcement of the speaker.
“Vetting of nominees of the president is very important for the state, you would not want to have a state that does not have deputy ministers, and I could delegate a constituency chairman to represent me at the tree planting exercise, because government business should run”.
He said this at a press briefing in response to an earlier media briefing organized by Member of Parliament for Tamale North Alhassan Suhuyini, giving reasons for their walkout on Wednesday, June 23, 2021.
Again, Parliament is not run by the convivence of MPs, and added that when members of the Committee are aware that there is a duty to perform and the Minority did not come, it was their own bluff and the issues of vetting is fundamental.
Mr. Atta Akyea further noted that all the nominees need to meet what Article 94 of the 1992 Republican Constitution says being eligible to be a Member of Parliament which the nominees have met.
“It’s sad that the Minority elected to disrespect the rules, they did not come and want to shift the goal post, you did not come and you would not sit to approve the nominees, this is not the way to run affairs of parliament”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com