General News of Saturday, 22 February 2020

Source: peacefmonline.com

Ofosu-Ampofo instigated minority’s walk out – Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has disclosed they are reliably informed that the walk out of the minority in parliament prior to the president’s SoNA was instigated by the leadership of the NDC led by its Chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo.

According to him, they saw it coming and it does not augur well for the country's democracy.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' program, he explained that the minority could have even waited for the president to finish before staging their walk out.

He said the leadership of the NDC who instigated this must really bow down their heads in shame.

"There are times we did not agree with what their government was doing when we were in opposition, but walking out on the president wasn’t the solution," he said.

The minority in parliament on Thursday dramatically boycotted this year’s State of the Nation Address [SoNA] without giving any ‘tangible’ reason.

The minority organized a press conference addressed by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, in Parliament to explain their action.

According to them, since becoming President of our republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has conducted the affairs of state with the kind of "tyranny, despotism and authoritarianism" that frightens many objective observers.

"We have in the face of extreme provocation exercised restraint and urged the President to depart from his perilous path that puts the democracy of our country at great risk.

"Sadly, matters are totally out of control. The democracy we all toiled and sacrificed to establish is now threatened by the highhandedness of President Akufo-Addo. The man who in opposition styled himself as a champion democrat has turned out to be a nightmare and an existential threat to our fledgeling democracy," a portion of their statement said.