Kodua, others in parliament to ‘supervise’ NPP MPs conformity to 'no vote of censure' directive

The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Kodua Frimpong, has been spotted in parliament as the house considers a motion by the Members of Parliament on the opposition side for the removal of Ken Ofori-Atta as the Minister of Finance.

The National Democratic Congress MPs filed a motion in parliament on October 25, 2022, to be debated and voted on 14 days after its receipt by the Speaker of Parliament.

Upon the maturity of the period, the house is considering the motion moved by the NDC MPs, and they have hoped that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs would support their call.

This expectation is based on the fact that some weeks ago, some 80 NPP MPs took a historic stance when they called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to immediately sack Ken Ofori-Atta over his poor performance.

The MPs stated in their press conference that should the president fail to do this, they would begin boycotting government business in the house, including the reading of the 2023 budget statement and economic policy.

This call has since been placed on hold after the president met with the NPP MPs and urged them to give the Minister of Finance time to complete some pressing government business, including his IMF request.

But ahead of the hearing of the motion for a vote of censure against Ken Ofori-Atta, the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Kodua Frimpong, wrote a letter to its MPs, directing them to stay away from the vote.

In the statement dated November 9, 2022, the national leadership said that “While the National Executive body acknowledges the prevailing socio-economic conditions in the country and the need for urgent remedial interventions, it is our utmost position that the demand of the NDC-led Minority Caucus is ill-intended and aimed at derailing government’s efforts at resolving current socio-economic upheavals.

“The leadership acknowledges that the Minister for Finance is the leader of government's negotiation team with the International Monetary Fund. Considering that negotiation with the IMF is nearly completed, the National Executive body of the Party strongly believes that the removal of the lead person spearheading the negotiation may adversely impact the progress made thus far.”

On the day of the vote of censure, the NPP MPs, led by the MP for Effiduase-Asokore, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriye, stated in an interview that while they are bent on getting Ken Ofori-Atta out, they would not support the motion of the NDC MPs for a vote of censure against the minister.

"We are here to reiterate that, however much you heard us speaking that based on the intervention of the president, we will have to see the minister of finance do his work, read budget, see through appropriation and then the president will act.

"Over the days, we have heard the finance minister speaking and his speaking has influenced majority of us in the caucus, not only to state that we are back to the original position that we took, and that position is that the minister of finance must not be the one to read the budget, and must not be the one that would do the appropriation.

"We are here to tell you this morning that this will be very soon for you to see, the position of us and we are going to be positively defiant about that posture until that action is taken. However, we are not going to support the cause of the NDC in the chamber this morning.

"The cause of the NDC is premised on falsehood, propaganda and reasons that are not justifiable. Their position might look like ours but is not the same," he said.

The presence of the NPP General Secretary in parliament is therefore believed to be a sort of ‘supervisory’ one to ensure that the NPP MPs go by the directive for them to stay away from the vote of censure to take out the embattled Ken Ofori-Atta.

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