General News of Wednesday, 6 April 2005

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We Don't Owe Ghanaians Any Explanation - Botwe

The former Speaker in the last Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey, is reported not to have made any contact with his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), since the January 7, 2005 drama over the election of a new Speaker of Parliament.

Three months on, there has not been any official reason and the Minister of Information, Mr Daniel Kwaku Botwe, has declared that on Mr. Adjetey's issue, "we don't owe Ghanaians any explanation."

On why Mr Adjetey was not sponsored to be re-elected as Speaker, Mr Botwe had this to say, "lets's put it this way. There is no need for any official reason. In actual fact, the man was not going anywhere.

In other words, he was not forced out as you implied in your question. His term of office was just one term of Parliament, and it had come to an end. So it was not as if he was chased out or removed from office against the established rules. His term of office had come to an end."

On the situation where the then Speaker and Former National Chairman of the ruling party, Mr Adjetey, became the candidate of the opposition, Mr Botwe, who before his present appointment was the General Secretary of the NPP, told the New African Magazine, "well, the fact that he signed the consent letter to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was very regrettable, even though as a person, he had the constitutional right to do so.

As you rightly described, he was the former National Chairman of the party and I would be very surprised if he was not conscious of the implications of what he was doing."