Appointments Committee delays sittings

...due to protest by members of Minority

Sittings of the Appointments Committee of Parliament was on Thursday delayed for about an hour and half when the Minority members indicated they were accompanying the Member of Parliament for Gomoa West, Mrs. Ama Benyiwa-Doe to the Police station.

The members said, even though, the MP was not a member of the Committee, her counsel Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, who is the Ranking Member on Constitutional and Legal Affairs and Member of the Committee, was to lead her to the Police to answer to some utterances she allegedly made at the party's rally at Gomoa.

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Fredderick Worsemao Blay said he was not aware of the case but if it were true that the Police had invited a sitting MP, then he would also accompany her.

Mr. Blay, however, after a meeting with the Minority Members outside, came back to say that they had the right to consult and negotiate on issues, adding that they had agreed to continue with the vetting of the nominees for appointment as Ministers and Deputy Ministers.

Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey, however, said the House was not in session and so there was no need for the members of the Committee to stall the Committee's proceedings.

Alhaji Mumuni said the immunities and privileges of an Mp needed to be guarded and that they were ready to continue with the Committee's business. Mrs. Benyiwa-Doe told the Press that at a rally at Gomoa before the bye-election she mounted a platform at a political rally and commented on national economic issues.

She said she questioned the rationale behind the buying of a bulletproof car for the President at this time when most communities needed to be provided with basic infrastructure. Why a vessel in which crude oil from the Saltpond Oilfields was being stored could disappear from its mooring? And why after all the assurance of the genuineness of the new currency notes they were allegations of counterfeit 20,000 cedis notes in the system?

Mrs. Benyiwa-Doe said she received a letter from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) signed by one Owusu Donkor dated April 2 inviting her to appear before the Police. She said as an MP she felt it was her right to comment on national issues and wondered why the Police was inviting her for comments she made at a political rally.

The MP said she felt it was a ploy to clamp down on people who have divergent opinion about the economy and if it were so then it was undemocratic.

Mrs. Benyiwa-Doe said she was reporting to the Police under protest and that she would hold the government responsible for anything that happened to her. She alleged that a macho man threatened her at Gomoa during the bye-election. She said he accused her of being a witch and that she would be disciplined adding that she believed the present state of affairs was the beginning of the threat.

The Committee after normalcy had been restored vetted a Minister-designate and three Deputy Minister-designates.

They were: Mr. Alan Kyerematen for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and President's Special Initiatives; Mr. Joseph Kojo Akudibillah for Deputy Minister of Defence; Mr. Ignatius Kofi Poku-Adusei for Deputy Minister of Women and Children Affairs and Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng for Deputy Minister of Information.