The General Secretary of the
biggest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Aseidu
Nketia, has said he advised the immediate past Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike
Oquaye, not to contest for the Speaker race for the eighth parliament because
he was too old for that role.
“I warned him he was too old to
be Speaker. In fact, I advised him it was time for him to dedicate time to tell
his grandchildren Ananse stories and he refused and went into the contest and
lost, nothing more, nothing less,” Mr Nketia said at a press conference in
Accra on Friday, 8 January 2021.
His comment comes after Mr
Oquaye lost the Speaker race to the NDC’s Alban Bagbin on January 7, 2021, in a
chaotic election that lasted for hours.
Although the governing New
Patriotic Party has a slim majority in Parliament, as the only independent MP
for Fomena has declared his intention to side with the governing party in
parliament, its choice of Prof Oquaye as Speaker, lost to Mr Bagbin.
It is believed a member of the
NPP refused to vote for Prof Oquaye while one ballot got spoilt, giving Mr
Bagbin victory to become the next Speaker of the House.
Mr Nketia noted at the press
conference that the NPP, embarrassed with the outcome of the poll, approached
the NDC and asked the opposition party to issue a joint statement to the effect
that Prof Oquaye withdrew from the race, thus, leaving Mr Bagbin victorious but
the NDC refused.
He reiterated that any attempt
to make Ghanaians believe that Prof Oquaye withdrew from the race is false and
that he lost the election fair and square.
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