General News of Thursday, 6 March 2008

Source: Ghanaian Chronicle

Bagbin Vows to Defend Anane

Minority leader, Alban Bagbin, has defended the approval of Dr Richard Anane's appointment as Minister for Transportation.

He has thus indicated his readiness to defend Dr. Anane on any platform and at any place should the need arise. "I am prepared to defend the nominee any where" he stressed.

Bagbin said this when contributing to a motion for the adoption of the report of the Appointments committee on the President's nominee for the position of Minister of Transportation.

According to him, the competence of the nominee in the transportation sector makes him qualified for the position.

But the Tamale South MP, Harruna Iddirisu, thinks otherwise.

For him, the re-nomination of Dr. Anane showed clearly that the NPP lacked men of Anane's calibre who could have replaced him during his long absence.

Notwithstanding, he has called for a review of the CHRAJ Act, Act 454 1993, and asked the house to consider the ruling of the Supreme Court in the matter of Anane vrs CHRAJ to ascertain whether it does not tie the hands of public officers.

In seconding the motion for the adoption of the report, anti-corruption crusader and MP for Asikuma Odoben-Brakwa, P. C Appiah Ofori, said when the nominee was at the ministry, the issue of a shoddy work on the part of contractors became a thing of the past.

In Anane's absence, he noted that the practices started again, therefore expressing optimism that the nominee would be able to discharge his duties diligently to the appointing authority and doubters.

It would be recalled that Mr. Anane told the Appointments Committee of Parliament that although he had no legal battles at the courts in Ghana, he had directed his lawyers to file a suit at the family tribunal in America.

This, he said, was to allow him to streamline remittances for the upkeep of the child he had with his America mistress, Ms Alexander O'Brien and not to be seen as a gift, as the mother of the child puts it whenever she is questioned on the remittances.

"I do not want my contributions to the child to be seen as a gift," he said.

Dr. Anane stated that he resigned because a lot of things had gone amiss concerning his relationship with Alexander and sanctions brought against him by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

"I needed to proceed to court and seek redress," he emphasized.

He insisted that so far as the courts in the country were concerned, the matter has been expunged from the books; as such he does not think the issue should be revisited.

The nominee said this in response to a question on why he resigned, the questioner further wanted to know the details of the sanctions brought against him and whether the sanctions still existed.