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| AMOATENG RETURNS |
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| Posted on: 2007-Jan-31 GNA |
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The CASE of the embattled Nkoranza North MP, Eric Amoateng, yesterday resurfaced in Parliament when the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ebenezer Sekyi-Hughes referred it to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee.
The Speaker said the Committee should revisit the case and report to the House for a final decision.
The Nkoranza North MP’s case had been on the back burner for sometime now until it was raised at the People’s Assembly in Sunyani recently, with President John Agyekum Kufuor assuring all Ghanaians that Parliament would do the right thing, since it was the only body that had the power to take a decision on such a case.
Parliament had last year ruled that there was no need to free the Nkoranza North seat since Hon Amoateng was being held against his will by the United States authorities, following agitations from mostly the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the seat should be declared vacant to give way to a by-election.
The Nkoranza North MP is being held in a New York correctional centre in Brooklyn on drug-related charges, having been arrested on November 12, 2005 at John F. Kennedy Airport along with an alleged accomplice, Nii Okai Adjei, for allegedly smuggling heroin with a street value of $6 million.
Hon Sekyi-Hughes noted the MP had been absent from the House for more than a year, as a result of his alleged involvement in a drug-related offence in the United States and therefore it was time for the House to take another look at the case.
The Speaker made the statement in the House yesterday, at the first sitting of the first meeting of the third session of the fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.
Both the majority and minority sides expressed their willingness to let the Privileges Committee take another look at Hon. Amoateng’s case and come out with a report.
The minority leader, Hon. Alban Bagbin also said it was good the case was revisited “for us to learn from the past and chart a better course for this nation.
“We hope we look at this matter not with emotions but with reason, so that at the end of it, our nation, Ghana will be the winner,” he added.
The majority leader, Hon. Felix Owusu-Adjepong said, “We will wait for the report of the privileges committee before taking a decision, and based on our understanding of good governance and the rule of law, we will decide.”
Meanwhile, Rt. Hon. Sekyi-Hughes has reminded the MPs of their responsibilities, adding their constituents voted for them as a result of the confidence they had in them.
On Ghana’s 50th independence anniversary, the Speaker urged the MPs to participate actively in the celebrations, disclosing the planning committee would come out with a component of programmes for them.
The Speaker appealed to the parliamentarians to meanwhile make do with the available resources at their disposable until conditions were improved.
He informed the House as well about President Kufuor’s journey to Ethiopia to attend the African Union summit, and announced also that the President would be presenting his State of the Nation address on February 8, 2007.
Hon. Owusu-Adjepong used the occasion to congratulate President Kufuor on his election as the new chairman of the African Union (AU).
He commended members of the parliamentary service and press corps for their invaluable service to the House.
In another development, Nana Abu Bonsra, the newly elected NPP MP for Fomena, was sworn-in as a member of the House.
His election was necessitated by the death of the MP for the area, Hon. Akwasi Afrifa, in the latter part of last year.
The Speaker later cut the sod for the renovation of an old Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC) building near the Ghana Institute of Journalism, which would be used as meeting places for the various parliamentary committees.
The total cost of the project which included the provision of a 140-car parking space, was $2.5 million.
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