The Majority Caucus in Parliament has stated that in spite of their call on the President to remove the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, they will not support the motion on the vote of censure initiated by the Minority Caucus in the House.
At a press conference in Parliament today, the MP for Effiduase/Asokore, Dr Ayew Afriyie, said the Majority’s decision was based on the fact that the Minority’s motion was based on “false allegations and charges”.
They said even though they are still standing by the demand for the President to dismiss the Finance Minister, they will not support the censure motion since the 10 allegations levelled against the minister were “premised on falsehood and propaganda.”
“We are here to say that very soon you will see the position of us and we are going to be positively defiant on that posture until a decision is taken,” they stated.
Unjustifiable reasons
“We are not going to support the cause of the National Democratic Congress in the Chamber this morning.
“The cause of the NDC is premised on falsehood, propaganda and reasons that are not justifiable. Their position might look like ours but it is not the same.
“You will not be able to come to the Chamber to level 10 issues that bother on criminality by a person who is not there to defend himself and we have come to let you know,” he said.
Dr Ayew recalled the press conference the about angry 80-plus Majority MP held to call for the removal of Mr Ofori-Atta from office on October 25, 2022.
He also recalled the subsequent declaration by the Majority Leader to the effect that the call by the angry MPs were had become the position of the entire Majority Caucus.
He, however, drew intervention by the President to prevail on the MPs to allow the Finance Minister do his work by presenting the budget statement and see through appropriation before heeding the call by the MPs.
He said per the original position of the Majority Caucus, it should not be the Finance Minister who should present the budget and must not be the one who would do the appropriation.
With the Majority Caucus demand remaining still intact, Dr Afriyie said the Majority would come out to state their position after a meeting this afternoon.
Reacting to the Majority Caucus new position, the Minority said the caucus had not relented in its effort to see the Finance Minister removed from office.
Speaking on behalf of the Minority Caucus at a press conference, the First Deputy Minority Whip, Ibrahim Ahmed, said the Minority had been lobbying to have some Majority MPs support the motion to censure the Finance Minister, recalling the shifting positions of the angry Majority MPs.
“Here is the case 80 Majority MPs came to do a press conference and by the time they were invited, 95 of them were going to the Jubilee House and by the time they got to the Jubilee House they were 137.
“So, we strongly believe that at least all of them cannot go to one place and this is the Majority Leader which said when the e-Levy bill was debated an external party should not be dictating for parties in Parliament and they should allow Parliament to do its work.
“Today, we have the evidence the Majority Leader himself is being remote controlled by being given an official to tow the party line and not to follow his own conscience,” he said.
He argued that if the Majority MPs were bent on the principled position, they took to see to the removal of the Finance Minsiter, they should “let us go to the Chamber to impeach or not to impeach and stop holding press conference.”
Source: graphic.com.gh
