The Member of Parliament for North Tongu Samuel Okudzeto has said that the Minister of Food and Agriculture Bryan disrespected the Minority lawmakers who encountered him last Friday over the picketing by the food suppliers.
To that end, he said, the Minority will be filing an official complaint to the Speaker of Parliament on the matter.
Speaking in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on the Sunrise show on 3FM Monday, July 10, Mr. Ablakwa indicated that Parliament can decide not to do business with any minister who disrespects the legislature, a possible action that can be taken against Bryan.
It is recalled that the Minority in Parliament led by their leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson stormed the office of the NAFCO on Friday, July 7 to demand answers as to why the picketing food suppliers had not been paid their arrears.
The other opposition MPs who accompanied their leader were Juabosso MP, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ellembelle MP Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Adaklu MP Kwame Agbodza.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmakers had gone to the office of the National Food Buffer Stock Company where the food suppliers had been sleeping for the past three days to demand the payment of their arrears.
Bryan Acheampong was unhappy with the way and manner his colleague lawmaker had confronted him.
“You are a former Deputy Finance Minister, what do you know about these payments? What do you know about payments that have been delayed,” an unhappy Bryan told Ato Forson.
“…This is not the route to solve this problem. This inorganic picketing should not be accepted and encouraged,” the Abetifi Lawmaker added.
In response to him, Mintah Akandoh told him “You should be the last person to get angry, we are finding a solution.”
Mr Ablakwa during the encounter said, “We know what we will do in Parliament.”
Throwing more light on what transpired, he told Johnnie Hughes that “When I told him that we know what we will do, I meant tomorrow morning we will be formally reporting his conduct to the Rt Honorable Speaker and we will be asking Parliament to take a serious view of that because we don’t want this very terrible precedence, bad conduct to be seen by other Ministers.
“So we will be formally asking the Speaker to act. Remember that Ministers can be disciplined, parliament can even decide that we will not entertain business from ministers who misconduct themselves to Parliamentarians and we can even decide that any matter that will come from his Ministry will not be approved if he does not quickly come and render an apology.”
Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has summoned Bryan Acheampong, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, Bryan Acheampong and Minister of Education Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, over the issues of the picketing food suppliers.
This was after Mr Ablakwa earlier requested the Speaker to summon the ministers.
“Mr Speaker, I want to appeal to you that the Honorable Minister for Education and the Honorable Minister for Agric should be programmed to appear before this House urgently, and possibly, we should add the Minister for Finance because we are hearing the Minister for Education made a request for Financial releases and it has into been acceded to,” Mr Ablakwa said on the floor of the House on Friday, July 7.
In his ruling, the Speaker said “As the leader of this House, it is important that I keep drawing your attention as the representatives of the people so that you can properly represent the interests of your constituents,” Bagbin said.
“Now this is where we are. So I agree that the Business Committee should schedule for the three ministers to appear before the House. The three ministers are the Ministers of Finance, Food and Agriculture, and Education. They will tell us why the challenge.”