General News of Sunday, 23 December 2018
Source: dailyguideafrica.com
2018-12-23
Frank Annoh-Dompreh and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Frank Annoh-Dompreh has blasted the ranking member of the committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, for being too political and partisan with the work of parliament and always spinning on parliamentary issues that need level-headedness and objectivity.
He has, therefore, asked him to respect his office as a Member of Parliament and stop dabbling in propaganda on national matters that need to be objectively debated on the floor of parliament.
“My ranking member is a nuisance to parliament and to the Committee of Foreign Affairs,” he said.
The chairman of the committee blasted his ranking member when he addressed a press conference in parliament yesterday to react to the ranking member’s call for a probe into the alleged acquisition of a chancellery and ambassador’s residence for Ghana’s new mission in Oslo, Norway, at a total cost of $16.5 million.
He said for the ranking member to capitalize on official documents presented before the committee for further scrutiny and leaked it to the public is a clear demonstration of bad faith as the ranking member of the committee.
“How can a ranking member decide to leak an official document requested by the committee to help its work on social media,” he queried stressing that once the ranking member has become a nuisance he (the chairman) will know how to deal and work with him.
According to the chairman who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, the video the ranking member showed to journalists during his press conference showing people working on the said property did not mean that the Ministry was preparing to purchase the property.
He said it was possible the owner wanted to do some renovation on the property for its maintenance and possibly add more value to it.
“How can the renovation of the said property have any correlation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanting to buy that property,” he asked stressing that the ranking member was only being mischievous to connote that the property was being sold to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He said the property shown in the video of the ranking member is not a six-bedroom property but rather a 15-bedroom apartment which shows how mischievous the ranking member can be.
The chairman also said that the amount of GH¢15.3 million that the ranking member mentioned as having been released by the Minister of Finance for the payment of the Oslo property was an amount released for the payment of the a property in Guangzhou, China, to serve as Ghana’s new mission there.