Haruna Iddrisu
There is serious tension in the top hierarchy of the opposition National Democratic Democratic Congress (NDC) following the decision of the National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah to make changes to the Minority leadership in Parliament.
Haruna Iddrisu has been sacked as Minority Leader and has been replaced with Cassiel Ato Forson, Ranking Member for Finance.
Similarly, Deputy Minority Leader, Mohammed Muntaka has also been sacked with Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah replacing him.
Kwame Agbodza is now Minority Whip with Ahmed Ibrahim as First Minority Whip and Comfort Doyoe Ghansah maintaining her position of Second Minority Whip.
It is however unclear the reason for the drastic decision which was communicated in a statement signed by the General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey and addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K. Bagbin which has been sighted by DGN Online.
The removal of the Minority leadership is said to be causing serious confusion within the party as some of the newly elected executive particularly the national chairman is said to have an axe to grind with the sacked officers.
This comes after the longest serving General Secretary of the NDC had disclosed that the party will soon change its leadership in Parliament.
He said there was a plan to get new leadership for the party’s representatives in the law-making chamber but they had to hold on when the party decided to contest the 2020 election results in the Supreme Court.
In an interview with Citi TV’s, Nketiah who is also known as General Mosquito said the party was considering making changes within it’s front in Parliament.
“We started but we got to a point where we felt that, we needed to finish with the court case and we’ll come back to it. So it is something that we are going to do,” he stated.
According to him, people who occupy such roles in parliament ought to know their positions are not permanent and hinted the party could capitalize on parliament’s recess to make changes in their leadership in parliament
It is not clear whether his comment is linked to the recent disappointment of the NDC foot soldiers in their party’s leadership in Parliament, following the en mass approval of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s ministerial nominees to their chagrin.
Some NDC members had taken on their party’s parliamentarians on the Appointments Committee for working against their wish.
Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu who is also the Committee’s Ranking Member and Asawase MP Mubarak Muntaka have had their fair share of the criticisms from party members especially when they approved Hawa Koomson whom the party members wanted rejected for her violent tendencies during the EC’s voter registration exercise at Kasoa.
The development led to the Council of Elders of the NDC summoning the leadership of its caucus in Parliament on Tuesday, March 16, 2021.
In a statement, Chairman of the Council of Elders Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu noted that the Council and the caucus leadership collectively agreed that the incident of March 3, 2021 where some nominees for ministerial positions were approved was “regrettable and unfortunate, and runs contrary to the principles and values of the party.”
According to the statement, the caucus leadership pledged to uphold the principles and values of the party in their collective bid to develop the country.
The Council urged the national leadership of the party to resolve issues relating to the caucus leadership in Parliament and called on the rank and file of the party to remain calm, and provide the needed support to the parliamentary caucus in order to hold the Akufo-Addo-led government strictly to the principles of probity and accountability.
By Vincent Kubi