Kasapafmonline.com can authoritatively state that both New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament serving on the five-member Adhoc Committee that is probing the alleged cash for seat saga have gone their separate ways.
They have been working in harmony since Friday, January 5, 2018, the date on which the Committee was set up by Parliament following a motion filed by the Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak-Muntaka.
The Committee consists of five members; three from the Majority NPP Caucus and two from the Minority NDC Caucus.
Among the Members from the Majority NPP Caucus are Kwesi Ameyaw Cheremeh (Chairman), Yaw Buabeng Asamoah (Member and Spokesperson) and Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah.
Those from the Minority NDC Caucus are James Klutse Avedzi (Member) and Dr. Dominic Ayeni (Member).
They were expected to have submitted their report on January 24, 2018 but pleaded for one-week extension of time to enable them engage some business executives from the expatriates’ community that attended the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards.
However, they could not meet the deadline for the submission of the report on Wednesday, January 31, 2018. They therefore, through the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, pleaded for one more day of extension of time to enable them wrap up their report.
When all were expecting the report to be laid on the floor on Thursday, February 1, 2018, the Committee again failed to deliver.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu craved the indulgence of the Speaker to step down the laying of the report and consider other matters as advertised on Thursday’s Order Paper to enable the Committee round up their report. He further pleaded with the Speaker to allow the Committee to lay its report on Friday, February 2, 2018 and allow the debate or deliberations on the report to take place on Tuesday, February 6, 2018.
However, he told journalists after the House had adjourned that the Committee has been rocked by division with the Minority NDC Members going their separate ways.
“The Committee was supposed to conclude their work yesterday (Wednesday, January 31, 2018) and you know they’ve cocooned themselves in a hotel and they are working on it. Yesterday, they had programmed to meet at 3pm to conclude everything in order for them to submit their report today. Three of them went to wait and one of them was absent – the Hon. Dr. Dominic Ayeni. Unfortunately, they called him and he said he will be there at 5pm but he couldn’t go and said to them that they should give him two hours more. 7pm they called him and his phones were off. For whatever reason, it was not until 12midnight that he sent a word to them to respond to their earlier call and it is clearly – even the uninitiated will know that there is something happening.”
“So, this morning at the Business Committee meeting at 9:30am, my colleague the Minority Leader came to inform me that the Hon. Dr. Dominic Ayeni says that he wants to write a Minority report. That cannot delay – if you want to write the Minority report why don’t you tell your colleagues and you went to tell the Minority Leader. He said he has something to discuss with the report”, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.
