General News of Thursday, 9 February 2023

Source: mynewsgh.com

MPs doing their oversight work now victims of state harassment – Ablakwa laments

Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has lamented that he has become a victim of state-sponsored harassment, a strange court injunction, and faces the threat of imprisonment for merely doing his oversight work as a Parliamentarian.

He noted that a country where Parliamentarians become victims for performing their oversight work is doomed to be in a dark abyss

Mr. Ablakwa, who has been key in exposing alleged corruption in the construction of the National Cathedral and serializing exposés of alleged corruption, fraud, double identity, self-dealing, and conflict of interest involving the Secretary to the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral Secretariat, Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng, has said that there are currently “fascist machinations to use the judiciary and other state institutions to silence and intimidate me.”

He thanked his party for the support so far as he exposes alleged wrongdoing regarding the controversial construction of the National Cathedral.

“I am eternally indebted to the good people of Ghana, my dearest family, former President H.E. John Mahama, the NDC executive led by Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the NDC Council of Elders chaired by Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, my beloved North Tongu constituents, the rank and file of NDC comrades across the country, Civil Society Organisations, activists, genuine pastors, the credible media, my dedicated staff, gallant and dependable colleagues in the NDC Caucus in Parliament led by Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson.

"A country where parliamentarians carrying out their constitutional oversight mandate become victims of state-sponsored harassment, strange court injunctions, and judicial threats of imprisonment even as double-identity charlatans are protected and pampered is definitely a nation in the dark abyss,” he asserted.

He stressed that he is unafraid and will continue to execute his mandate as an MP.

“Let the cowardly forces of tyranny be told that I am not one to be frightened with imprisonment.

"I am ever ready to be a political prisoner of conscience than be coerced and compromised into a behind-the-scenes deal with the corrosive enemies of the Republic,” he stated.

Mr. Ablakwa has been injuncted by the court from revealing further information about Rev. Kusi Boateng. It is also alleged that national security operatives have been trailing him.