Parliament has approved the minister-nominee for Gender, Women, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba by majority votes.
This follows a boycott by the minority side of the house on Tuesday [February 7, 2017], when it sat to consider the 4th report of the Appointments Committee.
152 Members of Parliament voted “YES” in favour of the approval of Madam Otiko while there were NO votes.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, in an earlier submission, said it stands against Otiko Djaba’s approval nomination over her posturing when she appeared before the committee for vetting.
The nominee was queried by some of the Minority members on the panel for describing the former president as “wicked, evil and someone with a heart of the devil,” but she said she still stood by those words and will not apologize for them.
He also expressed concerns that Otiko Djaba had not undertaken her one-year mandatory national service because she had traveled out of the country.
But speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, the majority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said Otiko Djaba, following her vetting, secured an exemption from the National Service Scheme.
According to him, the waiver on her National Service makes her eligible to be employed in any institution in the country, as required by the National Service Act 426.
Prior to the voting on Otiko Djaba’s approval, Parliament earlier approved the nomination of six (6) more ministerial nominees to serve in the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
The House, at its sitting, agreed by consensus to approve the Appointments Committee’s recommendation for the approval of all the six nominees.
The nominees are Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng (Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation), Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (Minister for Communications), Joe Ghartey (Minister for Railways Development), and Joseph Kofi Adda (Minister for Sanitation and Water resources). The others are Kweku Ofori Asiamah (Minister for Transport) and Kwesi Amoako Atta (Minister for Roads and Highways).
This brings to total, 32, the number of ministerial nominees approved by Parliament out of the 36 nominated by President, Akufo-Addo. The Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Tamale South Constituency, Haruna Iddrisu, in his submission on the floor of Parliament during the consideration of the Committee’s report, said he believed that those who had been approved possessed the competence to promote development in their respective ministries.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
