The Member of Parliament for the Tamale North Constituency, Alhassan Suhuyini, has announced his decision to kick against the approval of Gifty Twum-Ampofo as a Deputy Minister for Education.
He said his decision is based on the fact that the nominee did not give a satisfactory response on her alleged bribery of New Patriotic Party delegates ahead of the party’s 2020 parliamentary primary in the Abuakwa North Constituency.
Gifty Twum-Ampofo, the Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa North, has been accused of bribing NPP delegates with GHS1,500 and a flat-screen television each.
Mr. Suhuyini said Gifty Twum-Ampofo’s response, when she appeared before the Appointments Committee on Thursday, June 10, 2021, suggests that her conscience is dead to the threat of bribery and corruption to Ghana’s democracy.
“I’m therefore disappointed in the nominee’s lack of candour and what seems to be a conscience that is dead to the threat of bribery and corruption to our democracy,” he said in a public post.
Alhassan Suhuyini, one of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) members on the Appointments Committee, said he has communicated his decision to the Chairman of the committee, Joseph Osei Owusu.
Read his post below:
“I have just respectfully communicated my decision to vote against the nomination of Hon. Gifty Twum-Ampofo Deputy Minister Designate for Education, to the chairman of the Appointments Committee.
My decision is borne out of my dissatisfaction with the nominees handling of questions regarding a CDD’s Corruption Watch assessment of the last NPP parliamentary primaries.
In that report, the nominee is said to have admitted to offering/bribing NPP delegates in the Abuakwa North constituency with GHS1,500 and a flat-screen TV each.
She repeated during her vetting that her conduct, which she downplayed, was not meant to induce and indeed did not induce the delegates.
When her attention was drawn to the fact that in 2016, when she was less than a year old as an MP from the classroom and perhaps not as resourceful, that she alleged and criticized her competitor, the then NDC candidate for the Abuakwa North Ambassador Victor Smith of attempting to buy votes in her constituency by giving two NPP executives GHS1000 each to join his campaign, she categorically denied that under oath.
I’m therefore disappointed in the nominee’s lack of candour and what seems to be a conscience that is dead to the threat of bribery and corruption to our democracy.
