A New Patriotic Party activist and former National Coordinator of the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON), Isaac Acheampong has described as absurd the rejection of three ministerial nominees by Minority MPs on Parliament’s Appointments Committee.
He said the three nominees will ultimately be approved at plenary and so there is no significant effect of the decision by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legislators.
“In fact, what the NDC MPs have done is seriously much-ado-about-nothing and it is part of a sustained attempt to deceive their followers after their disappointing loss at the 2020 presidential poll,” he said.
The Minority MPs on Parliament’s Appointments Committee unanimously rejected three nominees of President Nana Akufo-Addo for failing to meet varying expectations.
The three nominees are, Information Minister-designate Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister-designate Mavis Hawa Koomson and Food and Agriculture Minister-designate Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto.
The 13 NDC lawmakers on the Committee in a communiqué said the responses of the three nominees to some specific and public interest questions were false, unsatisfactory and disappointing.
On Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the minority legislators said: “The Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture was untruthful under oath to the Committee on the circumstances leading to the abrogation of the Fruit and Export Terminal Contract of 2015 by GPHA on his express instructions as contained in a letter dated 11th January 2021.”
On Mr Oppong-Nkrumah, the verdict of the minority was that: “The Minister-designate for Information was not the least candid with the committee on the multiple infractions of the law leading to the Bank of Ghana’s revocation of the license of Oval Microfinance – a company in which he was 83% majority shareholder.”
Writing on Hawa Koomson, the NDC MPs said: “The Minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development could not provide convincing grounds for the shooting incident during the Voter Registration Exercise in Kasoa on 20th July 2020, even though we acknowledge her belated apology for her recklessly dangerous conduct.”
Isaac Acheampong said the reasons cited by the NDC legislators for the rejection of the three nominees are untenable and smacks of deliberate attempts to derail the efforts of the President Akufo-Addo government to bring development to the country.
“While the government of His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is looking at speeding the development of Ghana, these MPs in the name of politics and for cheap political goal are trying to pull the whole nation back,” he said.
He further urged members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in parliament to maintain their ground and ensure the approval of the nominees in question.
