Ford saga: Desperate NPP forced sick MP to attend sitting - Akandoh

Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has said the Minority in Parliament in the height of their desperation to smear President John Mahama with dirt in the failed Parliamentary probe into his Ford car gift, forced their member who were severely sick to attend the emergency sitting.

The Speaker Rt. Hon. Doe Adjaho on Thursday recalled the legislators who are on recess to consider the minority’s proposed motion invoking Order 38(1) of the Standing Orders of Parliament and Article 112(3) of the Constitution to support their action in an emergency sitting.

They had proposed a motion calling on Parliament to set up a bipartisan Committee to investigate the President for collecting the Ford Expedition gift from a Burkinabe contractor, but that was shot down by the Speaker.

The Majority in Parliament was of the view that the proposed motion was just a

complete waste of time and the country’s scarce resources.

According to him, the Minority knew very well that once a matter is pending before a Court of competent jurisdiction or constitutional body, Parliament cannot delve into the same matter.

Commenting on the issue on Peace FM, Hon. Mintah Akandoh condemned the Minority for their frivolous and unnecessary action which was not for the good of the nation, adding that the Minority was hell bent on nailing the President but failed woefully.

“I can tell you that a leading member of the Minority was carried from his sick bed and made to attend this emergency sitting which was a total waste of everybody’s time. Yes he was so sick but was compelled to come to Parliament on Thursday in anticipation of what the Minority had planned.”

He added: “We thank God that he brought us MPs across the country safely to Accra for this useless exercise and has landed most of us safely back home.

Touch wood, if any MP died in an accident while journeying to Accra for this sitting, it would have really been a foolish death. Thank God we are all alive.”