The two clashed over the choice of words of Martin Kepbu
• Two lawyers had a verbal clash over the choice of the words of one of them during today’s NewsFile
• This was during an analysis of the calls for Kwaku Agyeman-Manu to resign for his involvement in the controversial Sputnik V vaccine procurement
• Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin was not happy with Martin Kpebu’s inference that the Minority side of the Committee convinced the Majority to take action to retrieve the money paid for the vaccines
One of the persons who has been spearheading calls for the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, to resign, Martin Kpebu, has clashed with the Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin.
The private legal practitioner was making his initial comments on the subject of the messy Sputnik V vaccine procurement deal during the Saturday, August 14, 2021, edition of NewsFile when he explained how the health minister has had too many bad procurement deals going against him.
“Before this Sputnik matter came up, of course we all knew Mr. Agyeman-Manu had been in office and he had at least two other brushes with the law in respect of procurement issues. One, you know the anti-snake venom matter, it went to the PPA. Mr. Agyeman-Manu was found culpable. So, this is nit the first time Mr. Agyeman-Manu has been involved in procurement breaches.
“Then you come to two, the Frontiers contract – that is the testing at the airport. COVID-19 testing at the airport and when the minister was asked, he said he doesn’t know. Fast forward, we come here and we will not subject the fact that he had been in public office, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and everything, this is COVID-19 under Ministry of Health and you want us to believe that the substantive Minister of Health, and we are talking about COVID-19, which is very much in line with his mandate,” he said.
But then when he started talking about the work the ad hoc committee constituted by parliament to look into the scandal came up with, Martin Kpebu kind of struck the wrong cords in Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin.
In his description of the conclusion by the Committee that the Ministry of Finance go after the said money paid to a certain middleman from Dubai, Shiekh Al Maktoum, Martin Kpebu inferred that one side of the House convinced the other that this was the right thing to do.
Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who was also the Chairman for that Committee, took an exception to his colleague lawyer’s words, urging him to retract those words.
Martin Kpebu however, would not be pinned down easily by his colleague.
Read how things turned out, as transcribed here:
Martin: “So now you come here about the perjury. Now, the thing is that, as a minister, when he appeared before the Committee, the first point I am making is that, they had made a request for the payment of cash to the Sheikh long before the minister came to parliament yet this minister chose not to reveal it.
“And you know what, it was after his testimony, the committee was so unconvinced – and the Minority did a good job with respect to this matter, about this lack of payment, so, together as a body, they agreed, convinced Majority that ‘let’s write to the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Ghana.’”
Afenyo-Markin: “Martin, if you can take away the Minority convinced the Majority. Deal with the issue
Martin: “It’s because you have come to defend the minister so let me isolate so you can’t tell me how to go about it
Afenyo-Markin: “This is our committee’s work, you can’t say the Minority convinced the Majority. We did everything by consensus so please, make the point but when you go in a certain tangent, we can’t help it or then I will stop you from there.”
