General News of Saturday, 13 March 2021

Source: mynewsgh.com

Muntaka reveals how coronavirus affected NDC MPs plans to reject Hawa Koomson, others

Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak

Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mohammed has finally opened up on why they approved some three Ministers nominated by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

There was hue and cry in the NDC after three appointees of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo including Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Hawa Koomson and Dr. Afriyie Akoto were approved by Parliament through secret balloting.

The approval which hit the party so hard caused its Communications Director to issue a statement blaming the Speaker of Parliament, Minority Leader and Minority Chief Whip for pushing their selfish agenda.

But speaking on Accra-based Adom TV in a yet-to-be-broadcasted interview, the Asawase Member of Parliament indicated that the Minority was handicapped during the process considering the fact that seven of its members were not present during the sitting.

He indicated that they did not want to engage in the heated arguments and “fight” that ensued on January 6 because after what they did in securing the Speaker seat in Parliament, over twenty members of the Minority got infected by COVID-19 and some were still in treatment centres recovering.

“A number of our members thought we had the power to reject them. After 6th and 7th when we engaged in that fracas and the Soldiers came in, we all came to the middle of the chamber to sing and after what we did, 23 of our members got COVID.

So before we were going into the chamber, me as a whip I reported that I didn’t have seven of my members, till now some of my members are at the COVID centre. Did we really have what it takes to do what people expected us to do? We didn’t,” he said in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com.