Majority leader reveals interesting reasons some NPP MPs voted against Mike Oquaye

Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has stated that before the election of a Speaker for Ghana’s 8th Parliament, he received information that some MPs from his caucus had planned a coup d’etat against the former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye who his party was seeking to retain.

GhanaWeb monitored an interview he granted Joy News on Sunday evening in which the Member of Parliament for Suame revealed that besides personal reasons, some of the MPs cited the health and age of the former speaker as well as their preference for a member of the bench. He refrained from listing other reasons that accounted for the act.

“In the lead-up, some information had filtered to me that some of our people had planned so to speak a coup d’etat against the Speaker, Professor Mike Oquaye.

"Some also said it was for some personal things that they said he had done against them. I will say that one of them said he was to travel out and when he went to the Speaker, he cancelled it, he said he will not allow him to go,” he said.

According to Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, such reasons in his view were not sufficient grounds for anyone from his caucus to have decided to vote against their party’s candidate who they pitched against his eventual successor, Alban Bagbin.

“Some others were saying that he was getting to the twilight of his life and that physical weakness had set in and that he shouldn’t be repeated.

"Others were also saying that they had heard that the President had more or less nominated somebody from the Bench to be the Speaker and they were going to root for the person,” he indicated.

He stated that on account of such information, he held a midnight meeting with the MPs who were yet to be sworn in at the Alisa Hotel in Accra where he sought to convince them into voting for Professor Oquaye.

“I was pleading with them that we needed somebody that the President would feel comfortable with, that party would feel comfortable with, transacting business. Nobody raised issues and for about one hour I appealed to them,” he added.

He further revealed that he again received information just a day before the election that some members of the caucus who were returning to the House, had not been convinced by his initial appeal for which reason a second meeting was held to address the MPs.

Going into the elections, the Majority Leader who disclosed his disappointment in the eventual result said he was convinced and persuaded on account of his second meeting with the MPs that nothing was going to be left to chance.