Stop being biased – Ablakwa tells persons calling on Minority to stop boycott

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has told all persons who are asking the minority to stop their boycott of parliament to also speak against what the opposition lawmakers believe is the persecution of their members.

Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 Wednesday, July 12, he said that these persons should not be biased in their call to the Minority.

“We have said that we will always assess our strategies moving forward. The persons who want to advise us should not be biased…let the kangaroo process stop, the persecution shot stop,” he said.

For his part, the Executive Director of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) Dr Rasheed Draman said that dialogue was important to resolve the issues that resulted in the Minority boycott of parliament.

He asked the Speaker to get the leadership of the two sides in the House to dialogue on this matter.

“Dialogue is the only option,” he said on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 Wednesday, July 12.

‘They need to sit down and talk, that is what is done in a democracy.”

The Speaker Alban Bagbin has asked the Minority Caucus to present a written, not oral, permission before being recognized as absent with permission on days they go to court to solidarize with their colleagues standing trial.

“So the burden will now shift onto you as a group to show evidence that my good self has granted you permission to absent yourselves in writing.”

The Minority, immediately after the swearing-in of Assin North Member (MP) James Gyakye Quayson, announced its decision to boycott proceedings each time he appeared before court on his criminal charge.

This decision was later escalated to include trials of the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, and Asutifi South MP Collins Dauda.
So far, two boycotts have been staged and both have been marked as absent for the Minority members and this is what is not going down well with them.