A shocked Mahama Ayariga.
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The Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, on Thursday night, January 30, 2025, condemned the Appointments Committee of Parliament for engaging in fisticuffs that disrupted the vetting of ministerial nominees.

Mr. Ayariga, whose intervention brought truce during the disturbances maintained that the conduct of the members was an indictment on the integrity of the House and would take them some effort for them to redeem their image.

Addressing both caucuses after tempers had calmed down in the House, the Bawku Central lawmaker pleaded with the members on the committee and assured them of engagements with the other side to ensure such acts do not reoccur.

He also advised that members make judicious use of the time they get at the vetting to ask relevant questions in order not to waste time on frivolities that do not bring out the best out of the nominees.

“All of us have supporters out there. All of us need to satisfy our supporters and so when we are vetting, let’s make use of the time allocated to us. So that we can be efficient, vet as many people as possible, so that we can have the ministers at the various ministries functioning.

“So, I’m pleading with members of the committee and I will have discussions with my colleague the Minority Leader, so we can come to some conclusion on the time allocation [for the vetting of each nominee].

“So, please, I’m pleading with you because what we have done today, we have seriously damaged our reputation as a Parliament. It has to take us a lot of efforts to redeem ourselves,” he stated.

During the vetting of ministerial nominees on Thursday, January 30, 2025, the Minority caucus representation on the Appointments Committee objected to the continuous screening of the Ministers-designate for Health and Foreign Affairs, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

They had argued that the Committee was scheduled to vet three nominees which was increased to five upon the Chairman’s plea with members.

However, they indicated that the Chairman sought to bring in more nominees after the agreed number was reached, hoping that the Minority was going to boycott the process.

This resulted in chaos at the meeting where the Minority members broke down one of the tables that were being used, and also damaged six microphones being used for the exercise.

VIDEO: Confusion erupts among members of Appointments Committee over vetting of Akandoh and Ablakwa