Speaker was biased towards us - Minority

Minority Caucus in Parliament has expressed shock over what they describe as ‘bias attitude’ put out by the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Michael Aaron Ocquaye, over the approval of Ms. Otiko Afisa Djaba’s nomination as Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection.

According to them, the Speaker deliberately ignored the Minority Leader, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, who was on his feet for more 15 minutes wanting to make a point.

Addressing the media shortly after the proceedings on the floor, Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. James Avedzi, noted that the refusal by the Speaker to recognise the minority leader was a clear sign of biasness.

The minority leader made several attempts to draw the attention of the Speaker, and that of the House to what he termed “illegality” the August House would commit if they approved the nomination of Ms. Otiko Djaba, but he was ignored.

The approval of Ms. Otiko Djaba’s nomination as Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection dragged on till around 7:30 p.m., on the floor of Parliament.

It would be recalled that the approval of Ms. Afisa Djaba was deferred by Parliament last week Friday, February, 3, 2017 for lack of consensus.

“Yes, you have the numbers and you can do whatever you want, but we want to assure that as the people’s representatives and legislators, we won’t be party to any illegality,” the minority leader lamented.

After the heated debate on the floor, the approval of minister-designate for gender, children and social protection went into voting which saw only the majority members vote with the minority remaining in their seats without partaking in the process.

At the end of the voting, Ms. Afisa Djaba polled 152 YES votes as against zero votes, her nomination was therefore, approved by a majority decision.