The Minority Leader of Parliament and Member of Parliament for the Effutu constituency in the Central Region, Hon. Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, has assured Ghanaians that Members of the Minority in Parliament’s Appointments Committee will continue to ask relevant questions to ministerial nominees during the vetting process.
The legislature alleged that members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the committee are attempting to intimidate the minority from asking questions but emphasized that nothing will stop them from fulfilling their duties.
Hon. Afenyo-Markin said this in response to an appeal by the Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, urging members of the Appointments Committee to maximize their time during the ministerial vetting. He also stated that he would have discussions with the Minority Leader to reach a conclusion on time allocation and the duration of the vetting process for individual nominees.
The Parliament and Member of Parliament for the Effutu constituency firmly stated that the Minority members would not yield to any pressure or attempts to bully them into changing their stance.
“We have to ask the relevant questions. You are aware that some of the nominees, we don’t even ask them questions, where we have to ask the relevant questions, we will ask. Nothing will stop us from asking the necessary questions.
“It’s not every nominee, some of their nominees spend five minutes. NDC is always up to intimidating people, they think that they must always bully. We will not accept any bullying. They can call us micro minority, they can say whatever they want to say.” He said.
Hon. Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, also accused the Clerk of the Appointments Committee of being partisan, alleging that she is working in favor of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He accused the Clerk of acting outside the usual procedures by unilaterally making decisions without agreement from both sides.
“We’ve been cooperating with them. Today we agreed to do three the clerk to the committee is a partisan clerk, she is a typical NDC, she agrees with them and then she advertises and informs people to come.
“All the practice has always been that chairman and ranking would agree as to who and who will come. Yesterday there was no agreement. The chairman was with me, no meeting, then in the night, 10pm, the clerk advertised 10.
“This morning my deputy was here. They had a pre-sitting. They agreed to three, later in the afternoon they said four, and then again they said that let us compromise on one more. We said okay, then he made it five.
“Just as we finished the fifth, we realized that they’ve paraded several other nominees dressed and then they thought that we would boycott, we will not boycott.” He said.
Hon. Afenyo-Markin further explained that, despite yesterday’s chaos, vetting will continue today. H said. “we agreed by consensus to take it up tomorrow at nine o’clock. We have cooperated with them, we’ll continue to cooperate with them but we will not allow ourselves to be bullied. It’s as simple as that and nobody can attempt to limit us as to the number of questions we will ask a nominee.”
Source: Elvisanokyenews.com
