The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema West, Carlos Ahenkorah, has said that he is so happy about the ongoing turmoil in the opposition, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), following the decision of some of the parliamentarians to go against the party’s decision to vote against recent appointees of the government.
According to him, the NDC has become a victim of the same tactics it employed to win the speakership election in 2021, when it influenced some members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to vote for their candidate, who eventually became the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin.
Speaking in a UTV interview on Monday, monitored by GhanaWeb, Ahenkorah added that the icing on the cake for him is that only two NPP MPs defected in the vote for Alban Bagbin, but a lot of NDC MPs disobeyed their party’s order to vote against Akufo-Addo's nominees.
"I'm very grateful to God that I am still alive today, witnessing the pains my brothers in the NDC are going through, I am very happy.
“Today, they have tasted their own venom… and it is not only 2 MPs who defected, up 32 or so voted against the party’s orders. Asiedu Nketiah was sitting at the public gallery with a sad face.
“… what they did to us on 7th January, circumventing parliamentary processes and not allowing us to whip our members in line and that we should have a secret ballot, the over 30 MPs have made them taste their own medicine,” he said in Twi.
Parliament approves all six nominees, two Supreme Court Justices:
Parliament on Friday, March 24, approved all six ministerial nominees as well as the nominees of the Supreme Court of President Akufo-Addo after a heated debate, 24 hours earlier and a tense voting process.
Final results declared by Speaker Alban Bagbin showed that all nominees got more votes than the minimum of 138 votes required because out of the 275 eligible voters, there were three absent.
Some Members of Parliament (MPs) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) did not adhere to the decision of the party to vote against the approval of the nominees.
Kobina Tahiru Hammond (MP for Adansi Asokwa) was approved as the Minister of Trade and Industry and Bryan Acheampong (MP for Abetifi) as the Minister of Food and Agriculture.
Other nominees who were approved include Stephen Asamoah Boateng, as Ministry of Chieftaincy; Mohammed Amin Adam, Minister of State (Ministry of Finance), and Osei Bonsu Amoah, Ministry of Local Government.
Stephen Amoah, the Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso, was also approved as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry.
The Supreme Court nominees who were approved include George Kingsley Koomson, Justice of the Court of Appeal, and Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu, Justice of the High Court.
Watch the interview below:
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Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema West, Carlos Ahenkorah