The Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has announced on the floor of Parliament that, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Samuel Nartey George, ministers designated for Foreign Affairs and Communications respectively, will be taken through secret voting to decide whether they should be approved or not because of a lack of consensus on their nominations.
Afenyo-Markin said that they are waiting for the documents that the nominees told the appointments committee that they would provide to substantiate claims they made when they appeared.
“We will take Ablakwa, Sam George through secret voting,” he said on Tuesday, February 4.
He added, “Those documents they promised to bring to us must be made available.”
But responding to him, majority Leader Mahama Ayariga said “The report of the committee says they have been approved by consensus.”
During the proceedings, the Speaker, Alban Bagbin lifted the suspension on the four lawmakers who were suspended for the mayhem caused during the vetting exercise last week.
The speaker’s decision followed an appeal to him by the Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Marin to lift the suspension, a plea which was supported by the Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga.
The speaker in his ruling on Tuesday indicated that the affected MPs had shown remorse hence his decision to lift the embargo on them.
“As a father, when your son commits an offence, you don’t punish your son to the extent of breaking his leg” Bagbin said.
” I will proceed to lift the suspension of the four Members of Parliament. The MPs who were affected can now return to the chamber or join sittings,” he added.
“To whom much is given much is expected, ” he added.
The MPs are; Frank Annor Dompreh, Rockson Dafeamekpor, Hassan Tampuli, and Jerry Ahmed Shaib.
The four were suspended for their role in the chaotic scenes witnessed on the evening of Thursday, January 30 during proceedings of the Appointments Committee.
They were captured on camera pushing and shoving each other as well as pulling and dragging tables, leading to the destruction of microphones used by the Committee.
The chaos resulted from disagreement among members of the Minority and Majority sides of the Appointments Committee. While members of the Minority felt that they had had a long day, thus could not continue vetting nominees after 10:00pm, the Majority members said the exercise could proceed without them.
