Suhuyini misled parliament on graft claim – KT Hammond

Alhassan Suhuyini, Member of Parliament for Tamale North, made a false claim in parliament when he stated that per the reports of Transparency International, the erstwhile NDC government’s worst performance at fighting corruption equals the governing NPP’s best record at fighting rot during its first stint in government from 2001 to 2009, KT Hammond, Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa, has said.

On Thursday February 23, Mr Suhuyini, contributing to a debate on the floor of parliament with regards to the president’s State of the Nation Address delivered on Tuesday February 21, said the government of the NPP should “remember that they have to beat the tall record of the NDC because according to the Transparency International report, the worst performance of an NDC government is the best performance of the NPP government”.

However, Mr Hammond, who got upset with the comment, rose to challenge the claim saying: “Mr Speaker, he has misled this house by making an extraordinary and outrageous allegation that is misleading the house.

“Mr Speaker, the whole world is aware of the credibility of the NPP government and indeed we have argued that corruption is in the DNA of that party opposite (the NDC) and so for this member to allege that the NDC, by any shadow of imagination is better than the NPP administration – the John Agyekum [Kufuor] administration and of course the NPP administration going forward – should not be allowed, it should not be entertained. He was completely off the mark.”

After these comments, Mr Suhuyini, in a follow-up interview with Emefa Apawu on the 505 programme on Class91.3FM, reiterated: “I want the president and his government to remember that for them to succeed, they should remember that they have to beat the tall record of the NDC because according to the Transparency International report, the worst performance of an NDC government is the best performance of the NPP government. And this he could not take. He got up on a point of order only to tell me and the house that I should not be talking about the Transparency International report and others when I know of [Alfred] Woyome and others, [yet] I am making allegations. But the speaker ruled that no, I was not making allegations. I pointed to a document and he asked me to submit the published document later.”