Minority walk-out was 'stage-managed' - Dan Botwe

Minister for Regional Re-organization, Dan Kwaku Botwe has debunked the reason leading to the Minority in Parliament walking out of the House when the motion was set to discuss the AMERI deal.

According of him, he will not begrudge the Minority side of the House for their decision to walk-out of Parliament as it is a matter of choice, but raised concern on the reason given by the Minority as cause of the walk-out.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, the lawmaker for Okre Constituency in the Eastern Region disclosed that the Minority staged the walk-out in order to excuse themselves from the AMERI deal discussion as they know how the deal came about.

The Minority has given reason that the Speaker’s recent insurgent behaviour of denying them from asking questions and making their points on the floor of Parliament necessitated their walk-out.

Hon. Sampson Ahi, a member of the Minority side of the House has described the Speaker of Parliament as bias; thus, he [Speaker] has no right to stop the Minority leader Hon. Haruna Iddrisu from continuing his argument after Hon. K.T Hammond’s point of order has been accepted by the Speaker.

He maintained the Speaker of Parliament is being partisan and bias in his approach to the Minority side of the House, as he is deliberately denying the Minority leader of carrying out his responsibility.

But Hon. Dan Botwe asserted that the Minority side had already made up their minds to stage a drama to alert the AMERI Company that they are not in support of the review of the deal, hence walking out of Parliament to achieve that aim.

He further averred that the point of order which is being used in the corporate world is not different from what the Parliamentarians are using except that the Minority wants to throw dust in the eyes of Ghanaians.

“Minority leader was supposed to second the motion on the AMERI deal review brought by K.T Hammond, but instead he started arguing on the motion which forced Hon. K.T Hammond to raise point of order to stop him [Minority leader] from the argument. K.T Hammond was not allowed to make his case on the motion and that was why he raised the point of order and the Speaker upheld it; there was no need for the Minority leader to continue his argument to debunk the motion,” he explained.

He set the record straight that “at least it is fair for Ghanaians to know the truth that if someone raises a point of order and it is upheld, the arguer is not allowed to continue the argument."

"If you allow the person to continue then what is the essence of the point of order?” he quizzed.

He again reminded the Minority that it is the Speaker who interpret the rules of Parliament and that there were many occasions which former Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Doe Adjaho used to tell the NPP [then Minority] to go for redress if they don’t understand his interpretation of the rules.

“This is not the first time the Minority has not been satisfied with the Speaker’s interpretation of the rules but they never walked out; this is stage managed. Whether the Speaker had spoken or not the Minority would have walked out because it was about the AMERI deal and they know how the deal came about; they didn’t like the idea of reviewing the deal,” he asserted.

He therefore said that Hon. Sampson Ahi’s reaction to the Speaker of Parliament shows how he was brought up and that it was wrong for the Bodi MP to denigrate the Speaker in public in the manner he did.