Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a member of parliament for North Tongu, has urged everyone calling on the minority to end its boycott of the legislature to also speak out against what the opposition lawmakers see as the persecuting of their members.
On Wednesday, July 12, he said that these people shouldn’t be prejudiced in their calls to the Minority on the Ghana Tonight programme on TV3.
“We have said that we will always assess our strategies moving forward.
“The persons who want to advise us should not be biased, you should advise the people who are the real perpetrators of the injustice. Let the kangaroo processes stop, all of these prejudicial comments should stop, and the persecution should stop. Look at the grave crimes that are going on within their own government, the massive corruption that has engulfed this government which some of us keep exposing every now and then.”
Dr. Rasheed Draman, executive director of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), said that dialogue was crucial to resolving the problems that led to the boycott of parliament by the Minority.
He requested that the Speaker convene a meeting of the two House leaderships to discuss this issue.
“Dialogue is the only option,” he said on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 Wednesday, July 12.
‘They need to sit down and talk, that is what is done in a democracy.”
On days when members of the Minority Caucus attend court to show support for their colleagues on trial, Speaker Alban Bagbin has asked them to present a written, not an oral, excuse before being recognised as being absent with permission.
“So the burden will now shift onto you as a group to show evidence that my good self has granted you permission to absent yourselves in writing.”
Assin North Member (MP) James Gyakye Quayson was sworn in, and the Minority immediately declared that it would boycott the proceedings each time he appeared in court to answer for his criminal charge.
Later, this decision was expanded to include the Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, and the MP for Asutifi South, Collins Dauda, in court.
Two boycotts have been organised thus far, and both were marked as absent for the Minority members, which is why they are not happy about it.
