The budget is over, let Ofori-Atta go – Appiah-Kubi tells Akufo-Addo

Member of Parliament for Asante-Akyim North, Kwame Andy Appiah-Kubi has told President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to fulfil his part of the agreement regarding the call to sack the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

He said the President asked for the Finance Minister to be allowed to present the 2023 budget statement thereafter, the request to remove him from office will be considered.

Since the Finance Minister is done presenting the budget, he said, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament who called for his sacking, expect the President to fulfill his part of the bargain by letting him go.

Speaking to journalists in Parliament after contributing to a debate on the budget, on Wednesday November 30, Mr Appiah-Kubi said “we said that we will not admit him to come to present the budget, the budget is the budget of the president but pursuant to our position,we have agreed with the president to respect the road map to address our request and that means that when we get to the end of it the president will also perform what we asked him to do.

“We expect that the President will perform his part of the arrangement. We made the request to him and he said we should wait until he finishes the budget, thereafter he will accede to our request. So we expect the president to accede to the request.”

Prior to the budget presentation on Thursday November 24, the NPP lawmakers threatened to boycott the hearing of the document if Mr Ofori-Atta was the one going to present it.

They wanted the President to sack him because they believed he was out of ideas to deal with the economic challenges.

However, they held a meeting with the President on this matter and subsequently allowed Mr Ofori-Atta to present the document after a plea from the President.