Member of Parliament (MP) for Busila South Constituency, Dr. Clement Apaak has insisted that individuals being appointed by the Speaker of Parliament to support him with his parliamentary duties do not necessarily have to be from the ruling government.
According to him, there is no law in the constitution that directs the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin on which political party or faction he is expected to appoint his staff from.
To him, critics of the Speaker’s appointments are not to be given much attention as he believes Speaker Bagbin has not even appointed enough persons from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to work in parliament.
“The Speaker of Parliament has not appointed enough NDC people to the house. I wish he appoints more of such people. I wish people he will appoint right from garden boys to cleaners are all members of the NDC. Where does it say that he should not appoint NDC people into Parliament? Where are the rules that say so?” he asked.
The politician believes so far as appointees of the Speaker are all competent Ghanaians who will help him achieve his goals and objectives, “then why do we have any qualms with what is going on?” he made this known in an interview with Raymond Nyamador on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy98.9FM.
“Did the NPP expect Speaker Bagbin to appoint John Boadu or surround himself with former NPP MPs? The Speaker needed to get people he could trust to help him execute his mandate and that is what he is doing”, he added.
Soon after the Speaker of Parliament appointed some persons affiliated with the NDC to advisory roles in Parliament, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu accused the Speaker of turning the house into an NDC enclave.
The Majority leader in an interview on an Accra based radio station said, “You have brought in Kofi Attor who is the Vice-Chairman of the party as an adviser. He has brought in two former MPs”.
“He says he is bringing them on as advisers. Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the party is now on the Parliamentary Service Board and then, Gayheart Mensah is also coming to the Speaker’s office.”
“So you are turning that place into an enclave for the NDC. There is one other guy whose name I have forgotten, he was a usual panel at Radio Gold. I understand he wants to make him his Communications Officer.”
By: Joel Sanco
