Two giants in the Minority Caucus in Parliament swerved a meeting scheduled between the caucus and the leadership of their party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) today.
Haruna Iddrisu and Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, former Minority Leader and Minority Chief Whip respectively were missing in the meeting between the National Executive, the Council of Elders of the NDC, and the Minority Caucus in Parliament on Monday, February 6, 2023.
The meeting which took place at the DF Annan Auditorium in Parliament House had stalwarts of the party including the Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and his General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey, Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, among others present.
Others at the meeting included chairman of the Council of Elders, Mahama Iddrisu, former Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi, and former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho.
Addressing the media after the meeting, the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah said the concerns raised have offered the party the opportunity to establish a framework for the running of the Minority caucus in Parliament.
“You can see from the enthusiasm that the challenges that arose from the announcement of the new leadership of our Caucus have all been resolved.”
The Chairman also disclosed that the party has learned some key lessons from the row that accompanied the announcement of the reshuffle and has led to the formulation of a framework to determine the leadership of the Caucus in the future.
“The challenges that we have been through in the few days have produced very beneficial results and it has led to the formulation of a framework for leading our Caucus in Parliament
“One of the takeaways from this meeting is for us to go and quickly expedite action for the formulation of a framework of leading our Caucus in Parliament in the future.”
Meanwhile, one of the petitioners who called for a suspension of the reshuffle for further engagements, Dr. Dominic Ayine said the group will support the new leaders in the discharge of their duties.
Cassiel Ato Forson replaced Haruna Iddrisu as the Minority Leader on January 24.
The meeting was earlier slated for January 31, 2023, but could not come on following an intervention by the Council of Elders of the party.
The party later rescheduled the meeting for today, Monday, February 6, 2023, in Parliament.
The meeting came after the resistance that greeted the reshuffle of the leadership of the Minority which saw Haruna Iddrisu removed as Minority leader and replaced with Cassiel Ato-Forson.
There has been a division among members of the group following a reshuffle of its leadership by the national executives of the NDC.
As part of the leadership changes, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, MP for Ellembelle replaced Ketu North MP, James Klutse Avedzi as the Deputy Minority Leader while Kwame Governs Agbodza replaced Asawase MP, Muntaka Mubarak as the Minority Chief Whip.
National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, said the party is not fragmented despite the uproar that greeted changes they made in their leadership in Parliament.
According to him, the NDC is still united adding that the changes have been welcomed by majority of the NDC members.
Some MPs signed a petition to reject the decision of the party over lack of consultation. Another set of MPs also petitioned the leadership of the NDC to ignore calls for the reshuffling to be reversed.
By Vincent Kubi