Murtala Mohammed, the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central has lashed out at the New Patriotic Party’s caucus in Parliament, describing them as a bunch of cowards.
Frank Annor Dompreh, the Chief Whip of the Majority group in Parliament had cautioned that his colleagues were not going to be pushovers for the NDC MPs as witnessed in the voting for the Speaker of the House role.
Annor Dompreh had threatened that the NPP MPs were going to forcefully resort to maintain their place on the right side of the Speaker.
"If Dr Apaak and his people think they are ready we are also more than ready. The fact that we kept calm during the inauguration of the 8th Parliament doesn’t mean we are weak. If that is their view, they should prepare for a showdown tomorrow," he fired.
In sharp contrast to the words of the Nsawam-Adoagyiri MP, the NPP MPs resorted to a tactic other than force to secure the seats on the right.
This tactic required as early as 4:00am on Friday, over seventy of the 137 NPPs MPs had taken their seats in the parliamentary chamber.
Reacting to action by the MPs, Murtala Mohammed said the NDC caucus had braced themselves for an attack and were ready to counter any action the NPP would take.
“My good friend, Annor Dompreh was issuing threats on radio that they will use minimum force. We wanted them to use the force, they would have seen the men. We came prepared. We thought they were going to be men enough to use force. They should have waited for us. You don’t cowardly leave home and come here by 3 am. They are bunch of cowards”.
He also described the conduct of the NPP MPs as ‘embarrassing and disgraceful’ and questioned the logic in reporting at 4am when official business starts at 10am.
“Some of them I know they have kids. They left them at home and by 2 AM they had left home. The kids will wake up and be asking of their whereabouts. How embarrassing is that? Just because they want to come and sit here. Parliament doesn’t work at 3 AM so it’s very irresponsible.”
