Chairperson of Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor has indicated that the disruption of last week’s ministerial vetting stems from the failure of the Minority to exercise patience to restore order during the proceeding.
The 1st Deputy Speaker of the 9th Parliament, facing the seven-member committee on February 5, 2025 to probe the happenings that fed into the scuffle, stated that he did not expect the Members of the minority to break into an uproar especially after arriving at a consensus to vet a sixth ministerial nominee being Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. “Between the time that they communicated to me that he can be added as the sixth person to the time I invited him to come and take the seat, I do not know what went on among our colleagues at the minority side.”
The uproar which was cued in by a signal, ‘mon twetwe’, according to Mr. Ahiafor came amid a deliberation with the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin to speak to the members of his caucus.
“And the moment that word has been said, they started pulling the cable and my microphone was disconnected and no matter how much I shout nobody could hear me.”
He clarified his stance against the scuffle, noting that he chose not to suspend the sitting to deliberate on how to restore calm rather than to incite any form of violence or uproar in the committee room. “At that point I really did not see the need I thought by saying order order and engaging the Minority leader and ranking member on the side as to what had really changed resorting to this; I believed a little patience would have resolved the issue,” he said.
