Ford motion dismissal shameful – Sydney Casely-Hayford

The Speaker of Parliament’s action of not allowing Parliament to debate a motion to probe President John Mahama for accepting a Ford gift from a Burkinabe contractor before rejecting it was a disservice to the people of Ghana, Sydney Casely-Hayford, a member of pressure group OccupyGhana has stated.

Mr Edward Doe Adjaho threw out the motion of inquiry filed by Minority legislators on Thursday, 1 September, explaining that the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), a constitutional body, is already investigating the case.

In dismissing the motion, Mr Adjaho told the house “after a careful study of the correspondence from CHRAJ, I have come to the conclusion that the matter is not different in material, in particular from the matter under investigation by CHRAJ.”

But Mr Casely-Hayford argues that the presidency has already acknowledged receipt of the Ford Expedition SUV car which a statement from Communication Minister Edward Boamah indicated was accepted and added to the pool of vehicles at the presidency.

He explained on Citi FM’s news analysis programme ‘The Big Issue’ on Saturday September 3 that the issue at hand is to determine whether the gift “influenced the presidency” to offer Mr Djibril Kanazoe contracts to execute.

He believes the issue of “accountability is important for citizens which is the main issue at hand and was pitiful and shameful for the Speaker not to allow a discussion” on the merits and details of the motion.

According to him, Ghanaians have a right to know if there was any linkage between the car gift and the contract and so just dismissing the case does not serve the interest of well-meaning Ghanaians.

Even though he holds the opinion that an impeachment would not have been possible because of the political polarity in parliament, he feels the issue was an important one and the minority should have been given an opportunity to present their case through a debate.