The Member of Parliament for Builsa South Dr. Clement Apaak has wished a happy prosperous new year but have reminded the government that the position of Minority on the E-Levy has not changed.
In his message, the legislator said the Minority is still against the obnoxious, regressive, financially exclusionary and unjustified E-levy (Momo tax).
To the NPP he said the Minority will resist any form of disregard for the procedures in parliament.
He noted that the Minority will fight with their blood to endure that the procedures in parliament are not overlooked.
“Let it be known by the hypocritical Ghanaian class that if the NPP in Parliament tries to circumvent, disobey, and overlook processes and procedures of Parliament as dictated by the Standing Orders of Parliament and the Constitution of Ghana, we will resist with our blood.”
He maintained that the First Deputy Speaker Joe Wise had no legal basis to have voted when presiding as Speaker.
“The constitution and our standing orders say a presiding Speaker has no vote and cannot vote. And we resisted an attempt by the 1st Deputy Speaker to vote.
The cunning NPP side has mounted a concerted effort to let Speaker Bagbin look bad and to cast our NDC side in Parliament as the aggressors. Bagbin has never obstructed government business.”
Read his full statement below
2022 No Delusions – Happy new year folks. But let no one be delusional in believing that our position as 137 NDC members of Parliament against the obnoxious, regressive, financially exclusionary, and unjustified E-levy (Momo tax) will change.
Let it be known by the hypocritical Ghanaian class that if the NPP in Parliament tries to circumvent, disobey, and overlook processes and procedures of Parliament as dictated by the Standing Orders of Parliament and the Constitution of Ghana, we will resist with our blood.
And we the NDC in Parliament have never been the instigators nor the aggressors at anytime in this 8th Parliament. The law: standing orders and constitution, say voting for the Speaker should be by secret ballot, they tried to disobey we resisted. They were voting and showing thier votes we resisted. Evenso, they snatched and consumed ballots when it was clear Bagbin had wone.
We stood our ground, resisted, and ensured that the legitimately elected Speaker, ASK Bagbin, was declared. Let me state again that Bagbin was elected, he was not granted the Speakership by some concocted consensus, not true.
Fast forward to 2022 budget issues which started on November 26th, 2021. The peak was when 1st Deputy Speaker announced that he will vote on December 20th.
The constitution and our standing orders say a presiding Speaker has no vote and cannot vote. And we resisted an attempt by the 1st Deputy Speaker to vote.
The cunning NPP side has mounted a concerted effort to let Speaker Bagbin look bad and to cast our NDC side in Parliament as the aggressors. Bagbin has never obstructed government business.
Honestly we too can legitimately accuse Mr. Speaker of bending over backwards too much to let government have its way. He is our father so we allowed him to do his work without any interference. But in all this, we had no idea that our NPP opponents would try the unthinkable on the coming Monday.
On that faithful Monday last year, after we insisted that the 1st Deputy Speaker had no vote and cannot vote, after he announced that he will vote. The NPP side pushed us off the Speakers platform and struck us with blows, when we tried to prevent the change over for “the referee to go wear a jersey of the opposing team to score a penalty for them, then go back to change into the referee outfit to come back and preside over the same match”. We will never allow such in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 till the end of time.
So in this new year, let those who are honest talk to the NPP in Parliament to change their ways, if not nothing will change. If they plant 100 times we will cut 100 times as we say in Ghanaian football lingo. If piking say mama no go sleep piking too no go sleep.
Dr. Clement Apaak
M.P, Builsa South
