Mensah-Bonsu’s attempt to throw mud at Bagbin pathetic – Ablakwa

Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has taken on the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, over what he calls attempts to throw mud at the Speaker, Alban Bagbin.

According to him, the attempts by the Majority Leader are pathetic and must be condemned by all.

The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu , has questioned the motives of the Speaker of Parliament in relation to the impasse that has characterized business in parliament during the just-ended budget meeting.

He had suggested the Speaker of Parliament is carrying out plans to stall business of the house due to his insistence on getting the Minister for Finance to allocate 1.72 billion Ghana cedis to Parliament.

Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu also disclosed that the Speaker openly confronted the Minister on November 17, 2021, before the budget reading on the need for such an amount to be allocated.

He thus blamed him for the chaos that characterizes the house anytime he isn't presiding.

“The day when this budget came to be presented, we had to be at the Speaker's place for close to an hour. We were not coming out. Why were we not coming out because we had a Speaker who told the Finance Minister that because we had not given Parliament an amount of GHS 1.72 billion that the Speaker had requested the Finance Minister to give to Parliament, he will ensure that the budget will be rejected.”

“He even said to him that he does not want to remind him of what his own father did to President Hilla Limann. All that is playing out is to satisfy what the Speaker indicated at the very beginning of the presentation of the budget. The people of this country ought to know the mindset of the Speaker with respect to this budget. With all that is playing out.”

But the Nonth Tongu lawmaker in a Facebook post on Thursday, December 23, 2021, called out the Majority Leader.

He insisted that the Majority Leader is “desperately trying to blackmail” the Speaker of Parliament.

“Majority Group Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu's desperate efforts to blackmail and throw mud at Speaker Bagbin is most pathetic and must be roundly condemned.”

“If President Akufo-Addo could increase his allocation to the Office of Government Machinery from GHS2.5billion to GHS3.1billion and at the same time raise his Contingency Vote from GHS186.8million to GHS933million (a staggering 431.5% increase); what is wrong if the head of the legislature demands that the organ he leads be accorded its fair share?”

—citinewsroom