NDC conspiring with Speaker to cause chaos — Afenyo-Markin
The leader of the NPP Caucus in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has accused the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, of aligning with the NDC lawmakers to derail parliamentary work.
The lawmaker’s accusation comes after Speaker Bagbin adjourned Parliament indefinitely for the second time earlier today.
The Speaker said the Business Committee did not present anything before the House to transact and based on their absence and the prevailing circumstances, he was compelled once again to adjourn the House.
READ ALSO: Speaker adjourns sitting indefinitely again
Speaking to the media after the adjournment, Mr Afenyo-Markin accused the NDC of deliberately obstructing government business.
He further warned that public servants might not receive their salaries if the impasse is not resolved soon.
The Effutu legislator also accused the NDC of conspiring with the Speaker to prevent the passage of key legislation, including the Free Senior High School (SHS) bill.
He expressed concern that the government’s agenda, including policies like the Free SHS and the payment of public servants, could be delayed if the budget is not approved before the next parliamentary session.
“Clearly, the NDC is on a war path. They want confusion and they want lawlessness in this country and all these are being supervised by Mr. Speaker.
“Don’t be swayed by their lies and propaganda. The chaos they started is how they want to end, we will not allow it. Right now, what the NDC has done basically is one; They don’t want Ghanaians to receive their pay, as public servants. Because they know that after the elections, there will be no budget. To be able to pay workers, there would be a need for approval of the budget in the first quarter of next year [2025]. It’s a constitutional requirement, they want to stampede it.
“Two, they want to again create a certain impression that Ghana is lawless. Ghana is not lawless, we will not allow them to give a wrong impression to the international community. We will respect the law.
“Three, all these businessmen you know, their fear is that under the 1D1F these companies are going to create jobs, these companies will employ people so their fear is that should these be addressed, it will mean that all their propaganda of unemployment would fall flat so further to frustrate them and drive them away.
“We have the free SHS bill which is before parliament, their main aim is to conspire with Mr Speaker to prevent the free SHS bill from being passed and in an unlikely situation where they see the light of day in the election, cancel it and say that after all there is no law backing it. Their main target is the Free SHS bill, the pre-announcement of laying in Parliament. And you remember how they fought against it. It’s an opportunity for them, as it were to prevent the Free SHS bill from being passed.”