The Majority Chief whip in Parliament, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, has said that the Minority acted in bad faith by seeking to call for a separate investigation into President John Dramani Mahama’s Ford gift saga.
According to him, petitions had already been submitted by both the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), and the youth wing of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), to the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, (CHRAJ) to look into the matter.

He argued that the fact that the body mandated to handle such cases has already commenced investigations, it was unnecessary for the minority to call for independent parliamentary investigations into the issue.

“In law, the process of doing something is as important as the matter itself. So you can’t jump the process. All they [Minority] were doing was in bad faith because the matter was being investigated,” he told Citi News ‘ Richard Dela Sky following the dismissal of the motion by the Speaker.

“If I were them, I would have waited until the matter was finished and then depending on the outcome, they’ll be able to raise what they want to be done.”

‘Speaker kept precedent’

The Speaker, Edward Doe Adjaho, dismissed the motion filed by the Minority today [Thursday] and adjourned proceedings without any comments from the petitioners.

However, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, said he was not surprised by the Speaker’s decision as leaders of the House had done same in similar situations in the past.

“Just go and check the records of the house. Justice DF Annan did same when he did not accept a motion when it came to the issue of the corruption allegations against former president Rawlings. When it came to the Hotel De Wawa, the Speaker didn’t admit the motion against then President Kufuor,” he explained.

“There are precedents in the House so I knew that this wouldn’t take an hour and that’s exactly what happened. There are precedents in the House. The Speaker has quoted all the relevant laws in the country, cases in the Supreme Court.”

He rejected assertions that the decision was taken as an attempt by the majority to waylay any potential investigation into the President’s widely conduct.

Muntaka said it would be inappropriate to make any claims against the President until CHRAJ had come out with their ruling on the issue.

“The Speaker is not bound by precedent; but in this case, he opted to go by the precedent and keep the precedent. He has not offended any law by keeping the precedent,” he said

“Was it the same impression that was given when the issue of the Hotel De Wawa involving President Kufuor was not investigated by the House? Let us all wait for the ruling of CHRAJ on the matter.”

citifmonline.com