Alban Sumana Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, has stated that in his current role, his National Democratic Congress (NDC) comrades do not expect him to do the party’s bidding.
He said that he is the Speaker of Parliament for Ghana, not the party, and that those who expect him to use his office to serve the party’s interests will be disappointed.
“You may have heard the blistering attack on me recently in the media, especially on social media, when I did not play any role other than presiding [over the House’s business].”
“Does he [Sammy Gyamfi] think I’m at the beck and call of the party because I say I belong to or came from a party?” Class FM spoke with the former Nadowli-Kaleo MP.
Sammy Gyamfi, the NDC’s National Communications Officer, made a scathing remark about the Speaker and some Minority MPs in Parliament.
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This came after Parliament approved three of Akufo- Addo’s ministerial candidates, all of whom had raised red flags during the Appointments Committee’s screening process.
Mr Gyamfi claims the NDC House leadership, including Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Chief Whip Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, and Speaker Alban Bagbin, deceived the party by voting for the three candidates.
“Some people have sold their conscience, but we haven’t. And we will work together to rebuild the party from the ashes of March 3, 2021, which I refer to as “Black Wednesday” – our day of self-inflicted shame,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“Now is the time for us to either focus on the right changes in the NDC group’s leadership in Parliament or fully forget about them. The new leadership has lost their moral legitimacy to rule, and they are unfit to sit on the NDC’s front bench.
“More importantly, it’s past time we realized we don’t have a Speaker of Parliament from the NDC. We don’t have any! We have a Speaker who was elected on the back of the NDC in order to follow his own narrow agenda. You put your trust in them at your own risk,” Gyamfi told NDC supporters.
However, Mr Gyamfi’s rhetoric was rebuffed by the longest-serving MPs turned Speaker.
“I’m no longer a member of any political party. I’m the Speaker of Ghana . I am not a part of the NPP’s Speakership. I am not a member of the NDC’s Speakership. Ghana’s Speaker is me. And it’s up to me to keep the balance. My job is to make sure that everyone is on an equal basis, and I make the decision and announce it. That is everything there is to it.
“So, if you sit down and look at me and think that maybe you were my girlfriend before [and, thus], I should give you an advantage over someone I’ve never met, don’t come to me; you won’t get it. Let’s finish; we can do the business together after work. I don’t do it while I’m at work. That’s my nature; that’s how I’ve always been, and it’s sad that these things are happening now,” he said.
SOURCE:ATLFMONLINE
