A fiery exchange ensued between the Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, and the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
This follows an alleged drug trafficking and money laundering involving two aircraft that passed through Ghana.
The public spat saw both figures accuse each other of diverting attention from serious national issues and resorting to personal insults in the process.
The clash began when Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the first to strike, called Mr Fordjour a “clown” in response to criticisms of the government’s handling of high-profile alleged drug busts, money laundering activities, and suspicious flights.
Rev Fordjour had just stormed away from JoyNews’ Newsfile on the same matter where he had debated NDC Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, in another heated argument.
On the programme, Mr Gyamfi had called for the arrest of Rev. Fordjour, insisting he must substantiate his claims or face legal consequences.
Mr Gyamfi argued that in other jurisdictions, such serious allegations against a sitting government would not go unpunished if found to be false.
“In other jurisdictions, he would have been blacklisted.
He stressed that if the MP refuses to honour a National Security invitation, he should be arrested and compelled to provide evidence to support his claims.
“If he doesn’t honour the invitation [by National Security] to him and he thinks that he can hide behind his parliamentary privileges, he lie bad. Because he will be arrested. Some of us will insist that he is arrested and you must substantiate that.”
But it appears the Assin South MP had more on his plate despite storming off the show during a brief break after suggesting that he had not been treated fairly.
On X, Mr Ofosu accused Rev Fordjour of being involved in spreading misinformation and misleading the public, calling the parliamentarian’s comments unsubstantiated and irresponsible.
“What a clown!” Mr Ofosu tweeted. “You have no proof, no basis, and cannot show same in even a thousand years. Even when clear facts are presented to you, you still remain pigheaded in your lies. That is being a clown, my friend!” he wrote.
However, Mr Fordjour quickly hit back, escalating the argument with scathing remarks about the Minister’s handling of ongoing investigations into Ghana’s involvement in cocaine trafficking and financial crimes.
He accused Mr Ofosu of being emotionally invested in shielding alleged drug cartels and money launderers from prosecution, thus undermining legitimate oversight efforts.
“When cocaine and money laundering activities are exposed and questioned, you expose your emotional connections to these transnational crimes, shield cocaine cartels and money launderers from prosecution, and resort to insults!” Rev Fordjour retorted.
He also added “Instead of providing answers to the high-profile cocaine busts, money laundering and suspicious flights, you’re here using 78.8 million of Ghanaian taxpayers’ money to peddle insults! Where is the cocaine and laundered money, Felix, my good friend?”
Mr Ofosu also pointed out the Minister’s lack of response to the real issues, instead accusing him of deflecting attention from the serious matters at hand by engaging in baseless personal attacks.
“You are wasting everyone’s time by debasing Parliamentary oversight to peddle infantile lies!” Mr Ofosu continued.
“You have no proof, no basis, and cannot show the truth in even a thousand years.”
Meanwhile, security analyst, Dr. Kwesi Aning, is worried over how sensitive security-related information is being handled by some Members of Parliament.
Dr. Aning, speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, noted that while security oversight is important, such issues must be approached with care and professionalism, especially by individuals with security clearance.
“What I mean for Kofi, and I can do that as a civil society activist and as scholars, but as a Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Interior with oversight responsibilities for a lot of our security institutions, and hopefully having security clearance… Such information must be handled differently,” Dr. Aning said.
He further criticised what he described as the politicisation of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament.
“And I think we need to discuss, elevate the conversation, as to how people in sensitive positions, who have clearance and may, because of that clearance, have access to information that is useful to securing our space to handle that information,” he added on Saturday, April 5.