Minority to boycott State of the Nation address over Common Fund

The Minority in Parliament has threatened to boycott President Akufo-Addo’s final state of the nation address over failure to release the MPs Common Fund.

Speaking to Starr News, MP for Bodi Sampson Ahi gave government up to Friday to release the funds or will face their wrath.

“The minority members met and we have realized that the government has taken a decision to deprive members of parliament from working effectively in our various constituencies. We are saying this because close to two months ago the government released the district assembly common funds to the district assemblies…as we speak we don’t when they are going to release the MPs share and we see this to be a deliberate attempt on the part of the government to stifle us, being an election year.

“So we are giving them up to Friday, if we don’t hear anything realistic, we will consider boycotting the State of the Nation address.”

President Akufo-Addo is expected to deliver the State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Thursday, February 20, 2020.

The delivery of the 2020 State of the Nation Address is in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana and the Standing Orders of the Parliament of Ghana.

Article 67 of the Constitution states that “The President shall, at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before a dissolution of Parliament, deliver to Parliament a message on the State of the Nation”.