The Majority on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Committee has accused the Deputy Ranking Member of the Committee, Nana Asafo-Adjaye, of pursuing a campaign of “character assassination” against Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
The Majority alleges that the attacks stem from Mr Ablakwa’s refusal to grant a request for a service passport for National Second Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Boakye.
Addressing a press conference, the caucus claimed that the then-NPP Youth Organiser, referred to as Nana B, who also served as Board Chairman of the National Food Buffer Stock Company, did not qualify for a service passport.
- Read also: Ablakwa facing ‘personal vendetta’ over refusal to grant Nana B service passport – Majority
Salaga South MP, Zuwera Ibrahimah Mohammed, argued that the Minister’s decision to comply with a presidential directive requiring holders of diplomatic and service passports to return them had become a source of friction with the Deputy Ranking Member.
“The minister’s strict compliance with the Presidential Directive, and refusal to be corrupted, must clearly be the reason for the consistent baseless unwarranted personal attacks and character assassination, clothed as Parliamentary Oversight,” the she said on Tuesday, October 13.
It cautioned that although the Foreign Affairs Committee had oversight responsibility over the Ministry, that mandate should not be used to pursue personal vendettas or agendas.
The Majority further argued that requests for favours from public officials must remain within the confines of the law, insisting that the Minister could not be expected to make an exception to the President’s directive.
The Majority also invoked the legal principle that those seeking equity must come with clean hands, arguing that Mr Asafo-Adjaye could not criticise the Minister for a decision the Majority considers lawful.
The allegations were made during a press conference at which the Majority also rejected the Minority’s claims that the Ministry had failed to account for GH¢49.7 million spent on the evacuation of Ghanaians from South Africa.