The filing of a private motion by some Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) to investigate the death of six people who died during the 2020 general elections has been identified as hypocritical by the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei- Mensah- Bonsu.
Six members of the Minority filed a private members’ motion in the House on March 23, 2021, calling for a thorough investigation into acts of violence that occurred during the 2020 general election.
Haruna Iddrisu, Muntaka Mubarak, Mahama Ayariga, Alhassan Suhuyini, and James Agalga, MPs, want the scope of the investigation to include state security intervention in elections and attacks against civilians that result in deaths.
They say that the IGP and other security agencies failed to keep a commitment made to Parliament and Ghanaians to protect lives.
However, in an interview with Citi News, Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu called for the motion’s reach to be expanded to include other elections.
This isn’t the first election in which people have died, he claims.
“What I don’t like about this is the hypocrisy being displayed. People have died in previous elections. So why haven’t they mentioned it anywhere? So I’m saying to us that if you have to do this, then maybe the time has come for us to open up.”
“We go back to the 1992 elections and relate to them so that, we are able to establish clearly what has happened and then resolve as a country that these should be a watershed for us and let us depart.”
Meanwhile, the Majority Leader expresses confidence that the appropriation bill will be passed before Parliament reconvenes on Tuesday.
“We have some budget-related bills which I have laid on behalf of the presidency ensuing from the 2021 budget statement and referral was made to the Finance Committee, and they will consider and report on Monday evening and hopefully, we will approve of them and then make way on Tuesday for the Appropriations Bill to be considered by the Finance Committee and then back to plenary for debate and consideration and possible approval.”
Source: ATLFMNEWSROOM
