Ras Mubarak warns NDC members to stop attacks on Alban Bagbin

Ras Mubarak, a former NDC MP for Kumbungu has advised members of his party not to "attack" Speaker Alban Bagbin for the confirmation of ministerial-nominees through secret voting.

Ras Mubarak told Joy News on Thursday: “It was not the Speaker of Parliament who held the hands of some NDC members to vote in the manner they did. So, it’s completely wrong for somebody…. to attack the integrity of the Speaker of Parliament for the turn of events in parliament.”

The nominees for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hawa Koomson; and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Akoto Afriyie, sailed through after they were rejected by Parliament’s Appointments Committee.

Per the Standing Orders of Parliament, the plenary, or "Committee of the Whole," was required to vote on the list.

After the secret voting on Wednesday, the nominees were passed. The President will now swear them into office so that they can officially start work.

Some NDC leaders and supporters have given scathing and robust criticisms of the Minority leadership in parliament and the Speaker, saying they could have done more to advance the interest of the NDC.

Sammy Gyamfi, National Communications Officer of the NDC especially, wrote on his Facebook timeline: “Comrades, the betrayal we have suffered in the hands of the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, the leadership of our Parliamentary group, particularly Hon. Haruna Iddrissu and Hon. Muntaka Mubarak, and dozens of our own MPs, is what strengthens me to work hard for the great NDC to regain power.”

"It’s about time we understood that we don’t have any NDC Speaker of Parliament. No, we don’t! We have a Speaker who rode on the back of the NDC into office to pursue his own parochial agenda and nothing more. You trust them, at your own peril,” he stressed.

Some of the nominees now ministers-designate evaded questions or were not truthful during their vetting, and then offered insincere apologies when they realised they were going to be rejected.