Your absence was not felt – Maurice Ampaw tells NDC on Akufo-Addo’s swearing-in boycott

Private legal practitioner, Maurice Ampaw has clapped back at the NDC MPs for boycotting the swearing-in ceremony of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the President of the Republic on January 7, 2021.

According to him, the NDC’s absence was not felt as the inaugural service took place successfully.

In an interview with GhanaWeb's Ernestina Serwaa Asante, the lawmaker said the smooth running of operations on January 7th showed that Parliament is ready to be move on without the involvement of the opposition NDC.

He, therefore, urged the NDC to rescind their decision of not partaking in activities regarding the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in parliament.

Maurice Ampaw stressed that “You could see that their absence wasn’t even felt and it didn’t even make an impact. It clearly shows that Ghanaians and parliament, are ready to move on without the opposition so they should rethink.”

He was of the view that the NDC MPs could have acted more maturely by attending the inaugural service and also make use of the opportunity to respond to the statements made by President Akufo-Addo on that historic day.

The legal luminary said the NDC’s boycott “will go into history whether you like it or not that on this historic occasion they boycotted, they didn’t have the opportunity to respond to the statement that the president even made.”

On January 7, 2020, the NDC, together with its leader, John Dramani Mahama did not show up at the swearing-in ceremony of Akufo-Addo as the President of the Republic.

Up to now, the leadership of the NDC has not come out to give reasons to why that action was taken, but it is widely believed that it is in line with the protest of the outcome of the 2020 general elections.