General News of Saturday, 27 February 2021

Source: peacefmonline.com

This is not the end - Ablakwa reacts as ministerial nominees evade 'mysterious' Frontiers question

MP for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa MP for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa

Minority MPs in Parliament have bemoaned the fact that some ministerial nominees were not forthright with Parliament's Appointment Committee so far as the "mysterious" Frontiers Healthcare antigen test at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) is concerned.

The NDC MPs accused Kwaku Agyemang Manu (Minister-designate for Health), Kwaku Ofori Asiamah ((Minister-designate for Transport), Kojo Oppong Nkrumah ((Minister-designate for Information), and Adwoa Safo ((Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection) of deliberately evading issues relating to how Frontiers was awarded the contract to undertake the Covid-19 testing at the KIA.

According to North Tongu MP, “what we have witnessed at the ongoing proceedings of the Appointments Committee is a shocking spectacle of lack of accountability, responsibility, outright disregard for our laws and utter disrespect for this country".

Speaking in an interview on Joy News, the North Tongu MP who is a member of the Appointment Committee decried that “it is totally unconscionable that when people are dying and when there is a pandemic a cabal will emerge and their only interest is profiteering. This is outright disregard for our laws”

Meanwhile, Mr Ablakwa in a Facebook post has also bemoaned the fact that "none of President Akufo-Addo’s ministerial nominees have been frontal or forthright with us on the mysterious Frontiers Healthcare $150 airport antigen test".

"The long-awaited Transport Minister-designate after many former ministers failed to take responsibility claiming to be unaware also says the contract between Ghana Airport and Frontiers is merely about renting space to Frontiers and nothing more.

He told us GACL had nothing to do with testing standards and the legal/medical compliance issues.

Clearly, the Frontiers deal did not expand the frontiers of transparency and accountability.

It is most inhumane and totally unconscionable for Ghanaians to be cruelly exploited for personal profit by some of our own leaders during a pandemic.

This is not the end of our mission for answers and accountability. The NDC Caucus in Parliament shall pursue this matter to its logical conclusion regardless of whose ox is gored" he wrote..