Osei Prempeh warns Majority against dealing with Minority in Parliament

Former Member of Parliament for Nsuta Kwamang in the Ashanti Region Osei Kwame Prempeh has cautioned Majority in Parliament to tread cautiously in its dealings with the Minority.

According to him, the opposition National Democratic Congress Members in Parliament are determined to cook up stories and create an unnecessary embarrassment for the government so that the government will look bad in the eyes of Ghanaians.

Speaking on Oman FM’s National Agenda Show during a discussion on the bribery allegations against the Energy Minister, Osei Kwame Prempeh, said his party should be mindful of what has happened and going forward threat cautiously, if they want to engage the Minority on any issue.

He said "I think this should be an eye opener for the NPP” adding that " let this be a lesson for all the Ministers, nobody should make a mistake by offering money to any committee in Parliament to work on any documents because the Minority will use it as evidence against you."

It would be recalled that Bawku Central Member of Parliament last Friday alleged that Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko bribed the Appointments Committee with an amount Ghc10, 000 to be shared among the committee members to influence them to approve him.

Mahama Ayariga alleged that Minority members on the committee were each given Ghc 3,000 by their Chief Whip Hon. Muntaka Mohammed, but returned the money after learning that the money was offered by Boakye Agyarko, whose approval was in limbo.

Although, Hon Muntaka Mohammed has denied the claims, Mahama Ayariga has maintained that he stand by his allegation.

But the three term Member of Parliament for Nsuta Kwamang and former deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice Osei Kwame Prempeh who waded into the controversial debacle expressed doubt about the claims by the Bawku Central MP.

Osei Prempeh said “in parliament we don’t just do things we go according to procedure. I was the chairman of the committees on Works and Housing, Constitution and Legal, Judiciary and Subsidiary Legislation in parliament and what happens is that if there is an “envelope” (money) for a Committee, it will be given to the Clarke and the Clarke will share the money to the committee members so for Mahama Ayariga to say that the money was given to the first deputy Speaker and he also gave it to the Minority Chief Whip is not true.”

According to him, listening to the arguments put forward by Mahama Ayariga and subsequent denials by the Minority Chip as well as Chairman of the Appointments Committee, it became clear to him that the Bawku Central MP was being untruthful.

He indicated that Mahama Ayariga bribery claim was unconvincing in the sense majority of the Appointments Committee members are from the side of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and wondered why Boakye Agyarko would try to bribe the committee, knowing very well that the majority has the numerical strength to approve him easily.

He called on the Majority to take steps to prevent similar unfortunate incident from occurring in the future by desisting from building consensus from both side of the House before a decision on any issue is taken.

Story By: Michael Creg Afful/affulchebuchef@yahoo.com

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