Speaker goes mad

..Jets out to China in anger

Last week, just before our story on the now infamous GHC20m Parliament renovation contract, the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Doe Adjaho jetted out of the country and was China bound.

Oblivious of the fact that few hours after landing in his final destination, The aL-hAJJ was coming out with another exposé, to dampen his mission of finding a safe haven out of the morass of revelations of wrong-doing relating to the ‘award’ of renovation and expansion contract in the House. The purpose of the visit was not known even by the leadership of the House and the Clerk to Parliament, much less the Legislative House Public Affairs Directorate whose personnel were playing hide and seek with The aL-hAJJ regarding the whereabouts and mission of the Speaker’s absence from our jurisdiction.

While parliamentary officials are not definitive on the purpose and type of the visit (whether private or official), our sources have revealed that the visit may have something to do with the renovation project. The Speaker, as the third person in command in the country did not include any official of Parliament in his retinue as customs demands in any official visit. In far-away China, the Speaker of Parliament, who is the third in command in the country after the President and his vice, was reported paranoid after our second publication captioned: “GHC20m Renovation chop chop in Parliament … SPEAKER: JM WANTS ME OUT… He is Behind All these Media Attacks against Me.”

He was said to have sent a strong and stern message to his close ‘aides’ back home and some senior parliamentary staff requesting to know the identity of those who are “leaking these sensitive information including his private conversation to this The aL-hAJJ.”

The Speaker, while still in China, ordered that before he jets down, (he was expected back last Sunday) all the locks in his office are changed because he does not trust anyone in the House again. According to him, “if my private conversations could be leaked including my criticisms of President Mahama in a meeting attended by only the top echelon of the parliamentary staff and the Consultants on the project, then my personal security and safety is at stake,” a source who wants to remain anonymous told this paper.

Also in China, the source added, the Speaker instructed the Public Affairs Directorate to immediately write a response to The aL-hAJJ story. “So you are there sitting at the office and am being attacked in the media and you are doing nothing?” he was said to have angrily asked personnel within the public affairs directorate.

No wonder, immediately after this threat-laden instruction, the Public Affairs Directorate issued a terse response to The aL-hAJJ publication mainly insisting the Speaker has nothing against President Mahama. A press release signed by the Deputy Director of Public Affairs of Parliament, Kate Addo, dismissed allegations that the Speaker had blamed President Mahama for the publications, insisting the allegations are unfounded and false. “At no point during the meeting was His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama’s name mentioned nor was any reference made to him personally as the one responsible for the bad press the speaker was experiencing,” the deputy director of public affairs said.

She entreated the media to crosscheck their facts concerning parliament before going to public.

“Parliament of Ghana recognizes the importance of the media and will continue to collaborate with the media to promote diverse views to ensure the continued growth of the country’s democracy,” she assured. However, this paper is resolute on its insistence that the Speaker severely criticized President Mahama and at the appropriate time, we will make the evidence available to the whole world to hear.

So, it is in the interest of the Speaker and all those speaking on his behalf to tread cautiously in this matter before they are exposed with our evidence on that issue and many other issues.

All along, we have kept certain things to ourselves for the sake of national interest and state security, but if we are dared, we will be compelled to release those damning evidence to back our stories.

Again, observers are wondering how the Public Affairs Directorate of Parliament singled out only the issue of the spat between the Speaker and the President for response and ignored the larger picture of cronyism and inflated cost of the expansion and renovation contract of Parliament House being undertaken by the Chinese company under the supervision of Messrs ADK Consortium, whose boss was spotted lavishing hard cash recently at the Speaker’s late sister’s funeral. (More on ADK soon)

The aL-hAJJ has gathered that the Speaker’s anger against the paper’s publications stemmed from the fact that he had intended to veil his presidential ambition and spring a surprise to both the governing NDC and President Mahama.

“His plan is to rally his support within the legislature and among the majority in the House after which he will come out public…, everyone in Parliament especially, the leadership is aware of his unquenchable ambition”, a high level source disclosed.

Thus, our publication has therefore rendered this political calculation from the Speaker ineffective, hence, unsettled his plans.

However, what this paper can confirm is that Rt. Hon Doe Adjaho has no intention of abandoning his presidential ambition, despite our publications and has thus decided together with his aides to change a strategy that can-not be detected by any of the inquisitive press.