Hotel Kufuor: Speaker Silences MPs?

... He refuses ?Hotel Kufuor? statement in Parliament
...Minority to hold press conference
It appears President Kufour?s headache from the controversial hotel saga is far from over. Information gathered by The Chronicle indicates that the Minority in Parliament is going ahead with a Press Conference soon, to call for an independent public inquiry into the ?Hotel Kufour Saga.?

This is coming in the wake of what Minority sources claim is an apparent refusal by the Speaker of Parliament, Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes, to allow them to issue the statement on the floor of the house.

Speaking to a member of the Minority in Parliament, The Chronicle was told that the minority has been compelled to convert the Parliamentary statement into a full blown press conference, because the Speaker has frustrated all their efforts to introduce the matter of ?Hotel Kufuor? on the floor of Parliament.

Clearly frustrated, the member explained that they had filed a Parliamentary statement on the matter as far back as June 17th, but the Speaker had kept dilly-dallying on the matter until this week, when he expressed his reluctance to allow it because he claimed it would inflame passions.

Clearly fuming, the member wondered how a statement that seeks to call for transparency and accountability by a public inquiry, into an issue that has reputation of the President at stake can be said to be inflammatory.

He said it must be the duty of all Members of Parliament to assist the President to clear his name in a proper forum where full disclosure of all the facts surrounding the purchase of the hotel can be made.

The Member said a statement on the floor is a preferable option because the rules of debate will guide and govern the discussion on the floor. This will not be the same in a press conference situation.

Only last Saturday, the original owner of the hotel building at Airport west, Mr. Anthony Saoud waded into the controversy about the sale of the hotel. While he added no new dimensions to the whole saga, many questions were still left hanging in respect of the role of former advisor Giselle Yazji in the whole transaction.

It is the Minority?s belief that a public forum that will bring the President, his son ?Chief? Kufour, the Prudential Bank, NIB, Giselle Yazji, Anthony Saoud and his son-in-law Hon. Hennric Yeboah to testify under oath will create a better medium for arriving at the truth.

?It is clear that we have not yet heard the last of the controversy surrounding the ?Hotel Kufuor,? ?Hotel de Waa Waa,? ?Intimate Hotel,? or whatever you will call it,?

JoyFM enquiries have revealed that the minority will hold a press conference soon to call for an independent public inquiry into the ?Hotel Kufuor Saga? to ascertain the truth or otherwise of the matter.