The Second Deputy Majority Whip, Habib Iddrisu, has dismissed claims by the Minority in Parliament that the NPP MPs betrayed them when they backtracked on their stance to boycott the 2023 Budget.
According to him, the claim has no substance.
“I do not know the betrayal that he is talking about because, in the first place, we never promised you that we were going to support your motion of censure. We never said that we were going to vote to support you to get the Finance Minister out, so we never betrayed them…any motion of censure we are not going to be part of it,” Mr Iddrisu said.
He added that the motion is “ill-intended” and the NDC Caucus is alone in terms of the censure motion against Mr Ofori-Atta.
The Majority MPs had earlier threatened not to partake in the presentation of the 2023 Budget if Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is not dismissed.
However, barely 24 hours before the presentation of the 2023 Budget the national executives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held a meeting with the NPP MPs and asked them to rescind their decision.
The leadership of the party appealed to the MPs to allow the Minister to present the budget.
Following this development, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, on the floor of Parliament after the Budget has been presented on Thursday, accused the Majority MPs of betraying the NDC Caucus.
“We feel let down and we feel betrayed by the Majority Caucus who have shown no wit in supporting us with our impeachment process within the letter and spirit of Article 82 of the 1992 Constitution. We are not abandoning our censure motion.”
But the Second Deputy Majority Whip, Mr Iddrisu, in an interview on Top Story, Friday, said they will not support the Minority’s motion of censure.
Meanwhile, the eight-member Ad-hoc Committee set up by Parliament to probe the Minority censure motion against the Finance Minister has laid its report before the House.
It comes a week after the Committee concluded its work.
Hilarious moments at Ofori-Atta’s censure motion hearing [Video]
Speaking to JoyNews after the presentation, Member of the Committee Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa expressed disappointment about the slow pace in dealing with the Committee’s report and taking a final decision on the Finance Minister.
“I was unhappy about the laissez-faire attitude …the heart of this issue is that Article 82 has been triggered. It says that during the debate, the Minister facing a vote of censure must be heard and that has been done. I thought that in the Business Statement for next week it would have been programmed specifically and clearly so that we will have a day set aside for the debate,” he said.
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