President Nana Akufo-Addo reportedly asked NPP leaders who wanted Ken Ofori-Atta‘s head where they were when the embattled Finance Minister was using his bank, Databank, to finance his campaign.
That is according to the Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, Member of Parliament for Banda.
He made the claim at a minority press conference held in response to the majority’s presser during which over 80 of them said they want Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to be fired.
According to Ahmed, those MPs should have spoken up when during a cabinet meeting, Akufo-Addo told critics of Ofori-Atta that he cannot fire him because he used his bank to finance his campaign.
Ahmed Ibrahim said that the Finance Ministry is a reward to Ofori-Atta for financing Akufo-Addo’s campaigns.
Mr Ibrahim said: “We are the representatives of the people. The minority leader didn’t do a press conference. He told the chairman of the business committee that, as representatives of the people and as duty bearers, we must move a motion to call for the head of the finance minister. So, if our brothers in the majority [caucus] believe in this, what they should do is to support the call by the minority leader and the motion by the minority leader for the dismissal of the finance minister.
“I see their press briefing as long overdue. If they meant well, the day they went to a cabinet meeting and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo pointed to them: ‘And you want me to sack my finance minister? When he was sponsoring my campaign, where were you?’ … was the day we were expecting them to come out with such a statement”.
But now, he pointed out, “they came to correct the communication outside to say that he [Ken Ofori-Atta] performed in the first three years and that’s why he’s [President Akufo-Addo] not sacking him. This is not what he [the president] told them in the cabinet [meeting].
“The reason why Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo doesn’t want to change Ken Ofori-Atta is that Ken Ofori-Atta used his Databank to support his campaign to become president and, therefore, the finance ministry is a compensation for the finance minister and that’s why he’s not sacking him. He [the president] said this to them [majority caucus] in the cabinet [meeting]. The ministers were there and he threatened them. You didn’t come out with such a statement”.
Ahmed added: “So, if they [majority caucus] mean well, you need a two-thirds majority of parliamentarians to sack the finance minister. When we went to the IPU, they told us that parliamentarians must walk the talk. More action and less talk. So, it should not be the majority [caucus] coming to make a press conference, the minority [caucus] coming to make a press conference”.
“If you have 137 minority [MPs] and 137 plus one majority [MPs] and both sides believe that the finance minister is killing the economy and, therefore, he must go, it should not be difficult to mobilise 183 MPs to dismiss or to reshuffle him if the president is refusing to do that”, he noted.
Over 80 majority MPs have called for the President to dismiss his Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, or they would not support any government business brought before the house.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com
