General News of Sunday, 25 March 2018

Source: peacefmonline.com

'Why the rush?' - Ace Ankomah disappointed at 'speedily' passed military agreement

Ace Ankomah was speaking on Joy FM's Newsfile Ace Ankomah was speaking on Joy FM's Newsfile

Renowned Legal Practitioner, Ace Ankomah has expressed disappointment at the ‘speed’ with which Parliament ratified the military agreement between the United States of America and the Government of Ghana.

He believed, given more time to "read and digest" the issue dispassionately, even "insignificant" Ghanaians like himself, "could have been of help".

"My major disappointment with this is the speed…why were you rushing? If we all had been given the opportunity to have the time to read and digest, and contribute to this, maybe all of us; insignificant us could have help you. Parliament should have given us more time; because then Ghanaians could have digested this; and maybe explanations could have been given or maybe changes could have been made to this…if we had had more time maybe Dominic could have explained to Ghanaians ” he said during a panel discussion on Joy FM’s Newsfile programme.

Parliament on Friday ratified the military agreement even though it generated a fierce debate between the majority and minority members of the House.

Before the ratification, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Minority members walked out at different stages of the sitting after heated exchanges for and against an agreement that will give US military unfettered access to some facilities in Ghana.

The Minority did not hide their objection to the agreement and did not fail to express same during proceedings in the House, Friday.

In their numbers, they washed their hands off the Ghana-US Military Cooperation agreement by staging a walkout in Parliament shortly after the report of the committee on Defence was presented on the floor.