Sack Ofori-Atta now or we boycott 2023 budget – ‘Ken Must Go’ MPs renew threats

Andy Appiah-Kubi, the Member of Parliament for Asante Akim North in the Ashanti Region has renewed calls for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akudo-Addo to immediately dismiss Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

Appiah-Kubi, who was the leader of a group of governing New Patriotic Party, NPP, MPs who demanded the dismissal of Ofori-Atta and another over mismanagement of the economy said by the latest decision, they were backing out of an agreement with the president.

The group of 80+ MPs who had become known as the ‘Ken Must Go’ MPs had agreed on October 25 after a meeting at the presidency to allow Ofori-Atta to conclude the ongoing preliminary talk with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and to present the 2023 budget and see to its appropriation before Akufo-Addo takes a decision on their demand.

Appiah-Kubi said that the agreement has collapsed and the MPs were reverting to their earlier threat of boycotting the budget reading if Ofori-Atta is the appointee tasked with delivering it whenever it is ready.

In an interview on November 15, 2022, on the PM Express programme on JoyNews, Appiah-Kubi stated: “Our position has not changed and we still believe Ken Ofori-Atta must go. We will not do the President's business through Ken Ofori-Atta. Any other person that comes, we will deal with them.”

The embattled Minister is currently the subject of a vote of censure and is appearing before an ad hoc committee of Parliament to have his say on seven grounds brought against him by the minority Caucus.

“The process through the vote of censure will come back to the President with a prayer that he relieves him of his duties.

“The onus is on the President to sack him or for the Minister to resign. There is nothing personal in our call for his sack. We are not afraid to be victimized,” he stressed.

SARA/PEN