The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has lashed out at the Majority Caucus in Parliament for turning their backs on their constituents at the time they were in dire need of them.
The Majority side had walked out of Parliament when voting on the censure motion, to remove Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta from office for claims that he failed in his duties, was about to commence.
The walkout, Haruna Iddrisu said, was tantamount to a neglect of duty to save a dying country.
“Mr. Speaker, if they have not walked out and honoured their earlier promise, they would be saving this country, because Mr.Speaker, where we are, the country is on life support, what we have done is to give it some oxygen for the next few days that may not be enough to the unknown world,” the Minority Leader commented after failure of their motion.
Parliament, According to Article 82(1), needed two-thirds of the total Members of Parliament which is 183 MPs to succeed in the censure motion.
At the end of voting, the Minority who are the proponents of the motion were 47 members shy of the requirement. Without the Majority, all the 136 MPs from the Minority National Democratic Congress voted Yes in favour of the motion with zero against it, which the Speaker interpreted as a loss.
Early on, before the walkout, the Majority Leader told the house that his side cannot support claims made against the minister because they cannot tell which of the claims are true and false.
“The Minority Leader in landing admitted that many of the allegations packaged, he said the Finance Minister notes that some of the issues that they have raised are true, they are right. What it means is that some of them are untrue, some of them are falsehood and you want us to vote?” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu asserted
But Haruna Iddrisu believes since President Akufo-Addo is unable to reshuffle his Ministers, “other institution or authority must do that on his behalf”.
Nonetheless, he noted, “we have sent a strong signal to him that we have passed a vote of no confidence on his minister because there is too much hardship.”
The Minority Leader now wants Ghanaians to judge the conduct of his colleagues from the other side.
“But for the majority walkout, we leave them to the Ghanaian people who stood strong with them, in their times of hardships and in their times of need they abandoned them because they don’t care,” he stated.
He was however full of praise for the Speaker for guiding the house very well through the novelty, declaring that history will remember the Speaker’s contribution.