Abdul Malik Kweku Baako
Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper has described the Minority in Parliament’s report on the cash for seat saga as despicable.
Abdul Malik Kweku Baako said the Minority’s behaviour is unheard of and no serious-minded person should pay attention to their distraction.
“There is only one report [the one presented by the Committee]. What animal is the Minority report, what is that? We have to be serious in this country.
“It is pathetic, I am so scandalized. There is nowhere in the standing orders where the Minority is allowed to present its own report after the Speaker has set a committee to investigate an issue,” he said on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokroko’.
Mr Baako said the Minority, if they had genuine concerns, could have made that known to the committee which will, in turn, add those dissenting views to the main report.
“That is a decent, refined approach in terms of Parliamentary work,” he said, adding that holding a press conference and presenting what they claim to be their own report is unacceptable.
The ad-hoc committee set up by the Speaker of Parliament to probe an allegation of cash for seats levelled against the Trades Ministry following the Expatriate Business awards last year presented its report to the House on Tuesday, but not without some drama.
The Minority walked out after a Minority member on the Committee Dr Dominic Ayine complained inputs from his side of the House were not captured in the report.
The Committee’s report exonerated Trades Minister, Alan Kyerematen and officials of the Trades Ministry but the Minority is unimpressed.
Speaking at a press conference held after boycotting a debate on the report presented to Parliament, Dr Ayine, accused the Chairman of the committee of refusing to incorporate the views of the Minority in the report.
He said the Majority had deviated from the substance of the investigation and hushed up ethical and legal matters.
Dr Ayine said per the transcripts of evidence available, the Minority had concluded that in the design of the package, the MEF assigned price tags of $50, 000, $70,000 and $100,000 for seats close to the President.
Mr Baako who doubts that the Trades Ministry was ever at fault, said if even the Minority had issues, they could have presented their disapproval in a more decent manner.
He criticized the conduct of the Minority from the moment they levelled the allegations through to the end.
He said although the entire process did not make sense, he supported the setting up of the committee to “expose their mischief through a transparent process.”
Citing a similar bribery allegation against the Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko last year, the veteran journalist said the Minority have a skewed agenda they are pursuing it.
“It is deliberate, they don’t care. They are creating a critical mass of allegation borne out of allegations and defended by allegations. Whatever you do, subject it to any form of scrutiny, they don’t care.
“In the process of investigations, then they go and pick titbits of what they perceive as contradictions or inconsistencies and then they invite us into the realm of interrogating those ones. Substance ignored,” he added.
For Mr Baako, the Minority has been exposed and he hopes that the public will not waste any time in listening to anything they have to say because “they don’t have a case that is why they are playing tricks. It is only in fiction that we have a Minority report.”
-Myjoyonline