Muntaka 'girl missing'

The Majority Leader in Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin has confirmed reports that Edith Zinayela, the lady at the centre of the Muntaka's is no longer in his office.

Speaking to Citi FM Friday, Mr. Bagbin noted that to the best of his knowledge, Miss Zinayela was on leave and that he did not know when or if she would be back.


He declined to comment on whether or not Alhaji Muntaka was in a romantic relationship with the mystery lady who played a role in the former Sports Minister being booted out of government.


Meanwhile, the former Sports Minister, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, is angry at National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs, following the manner in which they responded to his recent predicament.


The only gratitude he had was ironically for MPs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region who assured him of their unwavering support during the heady days of his ordeal.


His colleagues in Parliament, he said, were rather eager to see his back because they felt his continued stay in office was not in the interest of the party.

In a rare warning to the NDC, he said the leadership must be wary of a devastating anti-Northern agenda within its ranks.


Speaking Hausa to listeners of a local FM station in the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi, he said should the trend continue in the NDC, the electoral fortunes of the NDC would be shaken in future.


To his supporters, he asked that they remained calm.


He reminded the NDC that it was the Aliens Compliance Order that caused the NPP to lose favour with Northerners and Zongo residents.


Alhaji Muntaka did not seem to have a good impression about his colleagues in the NDC, describing them as people who remained indifferent about his plight.

As for the NPP elements in the Parliamentary caucus in the Ashanti Region, he doffed his hat for the solidarity they showed him when he was struck by the recent ado.


These NPP MPs, he added, showed interest in the matter and even assured him of their unflinching support.


Alhaji Muntaka confessed to his listeners that pressure was brought to bear on him to resign by some bigwigs of the ruling party.


He said some ministers of state and NDC MPs inundated him with phone calls to resign his position a few days before the National Security report was made public.


The party bigwigs, whom he said coerced him to resign, told him that they had spotted the report and that the best option for him was to resign to safeguard the image of the government.

The call for him to resign, he went on, did not surprise him because some elements in the party did not want him to be given the appointment.


The Asawase MP said he only got the appointment after some opinion leaders in the Zongo community prevailed upon the President to consider the support these segments of the country rendered the NDC during the elections.


It would be recalled that following the resignation of the MP as Youth and Sports Minister, his party executives at Asawase in the Ashanti Region took to the streets.


They warned the government to rescind the decision to oust the MP as minister or face their wrath when the next elections were due.


The constituency executives also resigned their positions in protest at what befell their man. They have since renounced that decision.

In an unrelated development, a group, Associates Of The Youth (AOTY), has called on the President to have the former minister processed for court.


The call was contained in a release signed by the group’s spokesperson, Dan-foster Oduro, in which the group stated that there were still some questions about the former minister.


The Asawase MP was embroiled in a 17-point scandal involving allegations of using the office imprest for a number of unusual expenditure.


When the matter hit the media, the President ordered the National Security to probe it, at the end of which he was given a clean bill of health whose integrity is being questioned by a cross section of Ghanaians.


While the report cleared him in one breath, it subtly queried him for indiscretion in the matter of the lady he traveled with to La Cote d’Ivoire and Germany.