Kufuor urges NDC MPs to return to Parliament

Accra, Feb. 8, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday asked the MPs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to reconsider their boycott of Parliament.

Delivering his State of the Nation address to Parliament in Accra, he said: "I make this appeal in the light of the sincerity with which government is committed to the reconciliation process it has initiated for healing the wounds of the nation and to make for a fresh start." The 94 MPs of the NDC on Tuesday began an indefinite boycott of Parliament to protest the 10 years' jail term handed Dan Abodakpi, Member for Keta and former Minister of Trade and Industry by an Accra Fast Track High Court on Monday for causing financial loss to the state. President Kufuor said it was a "sad day" the opposition NDC has chosen to absent themselves.

He said it was also sad that they had resorted to this course of action, apparently in reaction to the judgement of a duly constituted court of law.

"It is even sadder that they seem to ignore the fact that the due process of going through appeals, as provided for by the Constitution, is yet to be exhausted in the particular case."

The Chairman of the NDC, Dr Kwabena Adjei described the sentence as a miscarriage of justice and said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had not abandoned its declared agenda to use the Fast Track High Courts to destroy the NDC through the use of political trials to jail the party's leading members and functionaries.

President Kufuor said: "Mr Speaker, I want to use this occasion to ask them to reconsider their withdrawal from the House and come back to play their part to uphold the integrity of the House." The President again wished former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan a happy return home after his distinguished service for humanity. He said the election of Ghana to the Presidency of the African Union was an honour for the whole country and thanked well wishers for their kind sentiments.