Ford gift saga: Speaker’s ruling a great disservice - Methodist Bishop

A Bishop of the Methodist Church Rt. Rev. William Abeiku Blankson has slammed the Speaker of Parliament saying Edward Doe Adjaho did a great disservice to the State by failing to allow minority lawmakers to debate the attempted motion for a bi-partisan committee to investigate the ford gift saga.

According to Rev. Blankson, the action of the Speaker amounts to financial loss to the highest magnitude.

The Speaker of Parliament on Thursday dismissed a motion by the Minority members of the House calling for the establishment of a bi-partisan committee to investigate President John Mahama for receiving a ford vehicle gift from a Burkinabe Contractor.

In his address to the House, the Speaker said he was forced to reject the motion because CHRAJ is the only mandated body to investigate matters of conflict of interest.

"As a Speaker, I am firmly convinced CHRAJ is the only mandated body to probe this case."

Delivering a sermon at the funeral service of the late Emmanuel Benjamin Ephson, father Ben Ephson Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch Newspaper, Rev. Blankson said the Speaker's action amounted to stampeding parliament.

“I think what the speaker of parliament did yesterday, was a disservice to Ghana. In the first place you are saying you have the right to convene and so forth...when he found out that it was not going to be a meaningful meeting, why didn’t he refrain from calling the meeting.

“And, it is the duty of parliament to debate affairs and they came to debate an issue ---why should you prevent them from debating the issue. Why?

“[This] has caused more financial loss to the state than anything. Yes! Why should you? I mean you should allow them to debate. You are preventing parliament to function as it should. It is a disservice to Ghana.”