NDC can ban me, I will not support treacherous MPs - Ablakwa vows

The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has vowed not to support National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentarians who defied the party’s orders to vote against the approval of new appointees of the government.

Speaking at the Obaasima Campus Tour event at the University of Health and Allied Science in Ho, on Friday, Ablakwa, who appears to be still pained by the action of the said MPs, said that they have made the NDC lose credibility in the eyes of many Ghanaians.

He added that he is not going to work with the “treacherous” NDC MPs even if it means he will be suspended from the party.

“They said we should hold a press conference and tell the Ghanaian public that we will vote against (the president’s appointees), that we are opposed; only for the vote to take place after the press conferences and public assurances, more than 30 of you stabbed us in the back.

“And you think that I am going to support you people because you belong to my party. I will not because we don't even have credibility, the next time we will go and hold a press conference the Ghanaian people will not take us seriously.

“I don’t believe in treacherous politics, politics without principals, politics of betrayal, I don’t believe in that. And if because of that, one day, I will be suspended or banished from the party so be it,” he said.

Background:

Parliament on Friday, March 24, approved all six ministerial nominees as well as the nominees of the Supreme Court of President Akufo-Addo after a heated debate, 24 hours earlier and a tense voting process.

Final results declared by Speaker Alban Bagbin showed that all nominees got more votes than the minimum of 138 votes required because out of the 275 eligible voters, there were three absent.

Some Members of Parliament (MPs) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) did not adhere to the decision of the party to vote against the approval of the nominees.

Kobina Tahir Hammond (MP for Adansi Asokwa) was approved as the Minister of Trade and Industry and Bryan Acheampong (MP for Abetifi) as the Minister of Food and Agriculture.

Other nominees who were approved include Stephen Asamoah Boateng, as Ministry of Chieftaincy; Mohammed Amin Adam, Minister of State (Ministry of Finance), and Osei Bonsu Amoah, Ministry of Local Government.

Stephen Amoah, the Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso, was also approved as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry.

The Supreme Court nominees who were approved include George Kingsley Koomson, Justice of the Court of Appeal, and Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu, Justice of the High Court.

Leading figures in the NDC, including former President John Dramani Mahama, slammed the MPs who broke ranks and have accused them of betraying NDC supporters and Ghanaians for their selfish interest.

The MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has challenged the said MPs, who were allegedly bribed, according to Cape Coast South MP, Kweku George Ricketts-Hagan, to come out and tell Ghanaians why they voted to approve Akufo-Addo's nominees.

Watch a video of Ablakwa’s remarks below:

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