A former presidential staffer under the John Mahama administration, has described the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin as a “media whore” who enjoys being the center of discussions in the media.
According to him, the diplomat deliberately leaked a letter he sent to the Speaker of Parliament informing him of the UK’s decision to slap a travel ban on 4 parliamentarians, including a former member for allegedly engaging in various forms of illegal immigration practice.
“What is the import of putting this in the public domain if indeed Jon Benjamin respects our country as a sovereign nation? Who else could have done it? Work was being done to remedy this situation. We [Parliament] have the mechanisms and processes of correcting whatever wrong and investigating whatever accusations would have come against us. And I can guarantee you that, I will find it very difficult to suspect anyone of us [MPs].”
“You know he [Jon Benjamin] has the knack to be involved in any aspect of national discourse in Ghana… Simply put, he is a media whore. He wants the limelight. His time is due and I think this is the last thing that he wants to do and quite clearly he could not have found any other entity to malign than the august house of Parliament,” he said.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, Clement Apaak, who is also the MP for Builsa South Constituency, said the allegations by the High Commission against the legislators cannot be held as sacrosanct and therefore must be independently investigated by Parliament itself.
“Just because the British High Commissioner has leveled an allegation against 3 sitting Members of Parliament and one former Member of Parliament does not mean his allegation is sacrosanct. Of course he is a diplomat, he has a role to play and he also represents a country, but we are also a sovereign nation… This has come up, those who have been accused have refuted in their own commentaries one way or the other that the allegations leveled against them and the punishment meted out to them certainly is not justified,” he noted.
He further revealed that, the Speaker of Parliament has attached importance to the issue and is determined to look into it to unravel the truth. According to him, the Speaker while addressing first-time MPs of the new Parliament in January this year, said he was ready to investigate it, and thus cautioned the new MPs to conduct themselves in a manner that would not bring the name of the house into disrepute.
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