Andrew Amoako Asiamah
The independent Member of Parliament (MP) elect for Fomena in the Ashanti Region, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, has announced his intention to join the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to form the majority in eight Parliament of the Fourth Republic.
“I am joining the NPP in Parliament. This is what my constituents are telling me. In spite of whatever happened I should still be with the family,” he told journalists in Parliament yesterday.
According to him, his motivation is driven by “national interest, in the sense that if you like it or not the nation has to be governed, and looking at the division we always have in our discourse, if I decide to even go to the other side it means we are going to make things difficult for the executive arm of government to rule, and I don’t think it will be in the interest of the country to do that.”
“So let’s put everything aside. We need to have the country governed. My decision is not only political; it is also for the good interest of the nation,” he stressed.
He said “I am part of the family (NPP) and whatever it takes to be welcomed to the family, I will do it.”
On whether he has been offered anything for consideration, Mr. Asiamah stated that he had not made any request or been given an offer to align with the NPP to form a majority in Parliament.
“I am not going to make any specific demand. Probably, what might have brought the NPP down was some of these decisions. So if something like that was done to me and I wasn’t happy, why should I also decide to make such demands?” he asked rhetorically.
He said what he was looking forward to was to make sure that “everything the party does is open and transparent for everybody to see, that this is the way we are going.”
Mr. Asiamah said there was a lot of ‘pressure’ on him immediately after the elections, including issues of security, disclosing that “all my phones were off.
“I won’t have any reason to doubt whether the NPP candidate made an attempt to reach out to me. But the fact of the matter is that he is my senior brother. The contest is over. Obviously we shall meet and discuss the way forward.”
He said he also heard President Akufo-Addo also attempted to reach out to him, while his phones were off, adding that “he (President) made it through some people.”
“Offer is not important in my life. I cannot take any offer without recourse to my constituents; and they have said that whatever has happened I should still belong to the family,” he insisted.
The MP-elect indicated that even though he was not treated fairly by the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, he did not hold anything against any one as the decision to sack him from Parliament was “part of life.”
“I don’t hold anything against anybody,” he said and added that he had “received verbal apologies from some members of the party, it is not formal.”
Sacked From Parliament
Mr. Asiamah was removed from Parliament after his seat was declared vacant by the Speaker, prior to the elections.
The Speaker said Mr. Asiamah, having broken ranks with the NPP party that sponsored him to Parliament and subsequently forfeited his membership by running as an independent candidate for the constituency, could no longer hold himself as the MP for the area.
The NPP, on October 13, 2020, had written to the Speaker to trigger the provisions of Article 97 (1) g for the seat of the Fomena MP to be declared vacant after announcing publicly that he was running as an independent candidate.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House