Drama unfolds in Parliament

Page 12, Nov 12, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

DRAMA unfolded in Parliament on Wednesday soon after question time when the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu North, Mr James Klutse Avedzi informed the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho about a comment that he claimed the MP for New Juaben North, Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman had made about him (Adjaho).
Mr Adjaho had ruled that the one hour allotted for question time was over and called the Western Regional Minister and MP for Sefwi Wiawso, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo to present a statement, but before he could do so, Mr Avedzi stood up and made his claim.
He told the House that Mr Owusu-Agyeman had commented that Mr Adjaho "is not correct".
Mr Owusu-Agyeman had been standing to catch the eye of the Speaker, just before he ruled that the one hour allotted for question time had elapsed without success.
And when Mr Adjaho asked Mr Owusu-Agyeman whether he had made that comment, he replied, "Mr Speaker, did you call me to speak?"
That line of question to question ensued between Mr Owusu-Agyeman and Mr Adjaho until the latter stated thus: "Honourable member, you are a senior member of this House and you should know better" to end the drama.
That drama had preceded an intense question time, during which the Minister of Defence, Lt Gen J.H Smith, had briefed the House about the recent recruitment into the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Jaman South, Mr Yaw Maama Afful, had asked the minister to what extent the ministry took into consideration regional and gender balance in the recruitment of 453 personnel of the 2009/2010 batch of general recruits who reported for training on July 1, 2010.
Even though the minister informed the House about the modalities and percentages allocated to every region based on the country’s population statistics, Mr Afful disputed the claim that the Volta Region had been allotted eight per cent of the recruitment.
According to him, a document in his possession indicated that the Volta Region alone had been allocated 30 per cent of the recruitment.
The minister told the House that the GAF recruitment policy generally required 90 per cent male and 10 per cent female, while a second requirement was that each region should exhibit the appropriate gender mix.
He said in the 2009/2010 general recruitment exercise, the Ghana Army was given a quota of 900, explaining that those recruits were expected to be taken in two batches of 450 each.
He said at the moment, 391 males and 60 females were undergoing training, while the second batch of 534 recruits were undergoing medical examination, out of which 450 would be shortlisted for training in January 2011.
“It is hoped that any shortfalls in the regional quotas in the first batch will be addressed,” he said.
He said the percentage chosen for each region was based on the population census figures of Ghanaians between the ages of 15 and 29, explaining, for instance, that the Greater Accra had 19.3 per cent, Upper West, 2.7 per cent and Volta, 8.2 per cent.
While the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, tabled the document in which Mr Afful claimed that 30 per cent of the recruits had been given to the Volta Region, Mr Adjaho directed that Lt Gen Smith submit his document stipulating the percentages of the recruits allotted the various regions to the Table’s Office.
Earlier, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, had appeared before the House to answer an urgent question on the outcome of the investigations by the United States Department of Justice on the Kosmos and EO Group affair which had been filed by the MP for Navrongo Central, Mr Joseph Kofi Adda.
Answering the question, Mrs Mould-Addrisu told the House that under the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) agreement between Ghana and the United States, contents of the investigations were strictly confidential.
She stated, however, that the involvement of companies in the acquisition of shares in the Jubilee Field, including the EO Group, was being investigated by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.
She also told the House, in an answer to another question, that the problem of congestion in the country’s prisons was systemic and that efforts were being made to solve the problem.
When she was asked whether she would advise the President to set up a commission to review the country’s Criminal Code, she said the review had already begun, explaining that she intended to commission consultancy to study the code and submit a report to her.