
Members of the Minority in Parliament have said they don’t feel safe following recent developments in Parliament which they say is putting their lives in danger.
The caucus’ members on the Appointments Committee of Parliament have accused the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of bringing party thugs to the committee’s room to attack them.
According to them, the recent chaos that marred the vetting of ministerial nominees on Thursday, January 30, 2025, could partly be attributed to the invasion of these thugs.
Speaking to the media in Parliament Monday, February 03, 2025, the caucus leader, Alexander Afenyo-Marking, indicated that their decision to protest the vetting of the other nominees which brought the mayhem was partly due to the foot soldiers the NDC brought to the room saying they now feared for their lives.
“Apart from that, the NDC has resorted to ferrying its foot soldiers to come and intimidate us. The insults, the booing, all the insinuations, the attacks. Sometime we will be working and they will be pushing, the physical assaults,” he stated, adding that they are going to take measures for their own security.
“We have brought this to the attention of Parliament police. We are also going to beef up our security. The attacks are becoming one too many. We don’t feel safe.
“All these gave rise to our push down on that night. We are law abiding. NPP is known for its gentlemanliness. We don’t go physical. But we had to protest. Protest is part of democracy. It’s our right,” he lamented.
He chronicled the other events leading to the chaos at last Thursday’s vetting saying the additional nominees the Majority wanted them to vet also contributed to the disruptions.
He has said that the Minority, contrary to what a section of the public has assumed, is law abiding and has demonstrated gentility in its dealings in the House so far.
He says after agreeing to vet three nominees on the day, the Majority brought two additional persons who were screened, only for them to see six more persons in line to be vetted.
“On that Thursday incident, we had an agreement. My deputy leader, who represented the caucus’ interest at the preceding meeting agreed with the chair of the committee to vet only three for the day and that was their understanding.
“When we were done with the three, they asked for one more. It changed to four. When we were done with the four, they asked for one more. As a final thing, we had the fifth person. We vetted them in record time, only to see that they had paraded six more nominees on the corridors of the committee to be vetted. And this was 10 p.m,” he recounted.
The right thing to do is to grant suspended MPs hearing – Minority to Speaker Bagbin