• This is according to NDC MP for Tamale Central
• Murtala Mohammed has slammed his colleague for a U-turn on Speaker Bagbins ruling on the Sosu-Police saga
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, has alleged that the Majority caucus in Parliament along with the Police were being manipulated by the Executive.
His comments were related to the ongoing tussle between Parliament and the Ghana Police Service with respect to the attempted arrest of MP for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu.
Speaking to a Joy News journalist in Parliament on Thursday, November 4, 2021, Murtala said the U-turn by New Patriotic Party, NPP, MPs was a sign of lack of principle, cowardice and a signal that they were being manipulated by Flagstaff House.
His views came at the end of a heated Thursday when the Majority and Minority caucuses engaged in a battle of statements. The Majority bloc’s statement criticized Speaker Alban Bagbin’s refusal to grant police leave to question Sosu over alleged criminal offenses.
The Minority hit back accusing the Minority of aiming to undermine the Speaker, whose ruling on the issue last Thursday had enjoyed support from both sides of the house.
For Murtala, despite not giving any concrete evidence to back his claims, the only plausible explanation for the U-turn was because the NPP MPs had been called to the seat of government and threatened.
On the move by police to arrest Sosu, he stated: “The police don’t have the capacity to determine who errs on the side of the law. The only body with that capacity to determine whether someone has erred on the side of the law is the court… what we are simply asking the IGP to so, is to respect Articles 117, 118 and 122, respect them."
He jabbed the Majority for being hypocritical and unprincipled in their actions. “That is the level of hypocrisy of this NPP group in parliament… that tells you the level of a disaster of the state that we live in under this government.
“Mind you, this decision of the Speaker was taken weeks now, they never uttered a single word. I listened to a Member of the NPP who supported the position the speaker has taken and the position of the NDC, so what happened, what has changed, what has suddenly changed?
“Because they have been called to the Flagstaff House, there is a design by this government, the executive is manipulating them (the NPP MPs),” he stressed.
According to him, the ultimate goal is to start with Sosu and ultimately find reasons to arrest former President Mahama in a bid to scuttle his 2024 election bid.
“The executive is manipulating not just the caucus even the police. The agenda is that arrest Sosu and after arresting Sosu, the fraudulent Electoral Commissioner who came out and asked the Police to invite president Mahama over a statement he made, a statement which was in plea in court,” he alleged.
He also cautioned that the NDC will mount a stiff resistance should government attempt to execute that alleged plan.
Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed is MP for Tamale Central