Barely 24 hours after coming under scrutiny from some Members of Parliament and the public, Speaker of the House Prof. Mike Aaron Oquaye ordered for a minute silence to be observed for the departed souls of some sixty-two(62) passengers who perished in a gruesome accident on the Kintampo road enroute to the Northern region.
The August house came under mass criticism after duly paying respects to victims of disastrous incidents in two separate African countries.
Speaker, Reverend Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye however, expressed unhappiness with media reports that the legislative arm of government snubbed the victims of the twin road accidents to rather pay respect to victims of March 15’s terrorist attack in New Zealand and Cyclone Idai in south African countries of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.
Parliament Monday observed a minute silence for victims of the tragic shooting in New Zealand and those affected by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi; incidents which happened on March 14 and 15 respectively.
New Patriotic Party MP for Offinso South Constituency, Ben Abdallah Banda, read a statement commiserating with the government of New Zealand.
NDC North Tongu MP Okudzeto Ablakwa read a statement on the Southern African tragedy that has left at least 259 people in Zimbabwe, 56 in Malawi, and at least 417 in Mozambique dead.
Addressing the House in his three-page statement, the North Tongu MP called the situation in these countries dire and urgent.
Many including some members of Parliament were however surprised that a similar disaster peculiar to one of their own was overlooked and unacknowledged.
About 90 persons lost their lives and several others were injured in two separate fatal crashes Friday January 22.
The road carnage on the Kintampo-Techiman road in the North East region and the other on the Cape Coast road. These incidents however appeared to have been overlooked by parliament whilst similar ones pertaining to other countries were acknowledged.
Kumbungu MP, Ras Mubarak, following the event expressed disappointment in the fact that parliament didn’t seem to show concern for the over 70 Ghanaians who perished.
Mubarak who explained that he and a number of his other colleagues had been in the Public Accounts Committee sitting at the time, described the actions of his colleagues as disappointing.
“I found it rather strange that over 70 of our compatriots had perished sadly in Friday’s twin accident and the House of Parliaments that represent the people of Ghana didn’t demonstrate any show of support to the victims of the accident. It is very disappointing and if the public is angered by it, it is rightly so,” he said.
Copyright © 1994 - 2024 GhanaWeb. All rights reserved.
