Tamale North MP, Alhassan Suhuyini, says the Minority Caucus’s censure motion against the Finance Minister, was motivated by the call by 98 NPP Members of Parliament for the dismissal of Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta.
According to him, although they had the plan in the works, they decided to actualise it after the press conference held by the rebel NPP MPs.
Mr Suhuyini said this on Newsfile, Saturday.
He noted that the Minority Caucus did not file the motion because they lacked the constitutionally required number of 183 MPs to succeed, hence they acted when the NPP MPs publicly made their demand.
“The timing for the filing of this motion was very significant. This censure motion was considered long before it was finally filed. We discussed this many times at our caucus and we thought that there was no point in starting something on our own we did not have the power to execute fully, because of the constitutional limitation.
“Our decision was finally firmed to file this motion when we saw that our colleagues on the majority side publicly expressed their concern about the handling of the economy by Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta which was in sync with what we have been discussing all this while as a Minority,” he stated.
According to him, the call by the rebel NPP MPs presented an opportune time for the Minority members to file the motion because they were optimistic about getting support from the Majority members.
However, when the vote was taken on Thursday the Minority members did not succeed because the NPP MPs, including those who want Mr. Ofori-Atta out, walked out of the House.
Although all the 136 Minority MPs secretly voted yes for the Minister to be dismissed, they could not satisfy the requirement of Article 82 – two-thirds of all MPs present and voting.
Before walking out, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said, “…. Like Pontius Pilate, we will wash our hands off this,” he said.
But Alhassan Suhuyini believes the Minority could have succeeded if not for the walkout by the Majority.
“I am definitely sure [we would have succeeded if not for the walkout]. When the Speaker suspended the sittings, I engaged with some of the Majority members and I realised that the Whip of the Majority was even finding it difficult to convince some of their members to walk out with them,” he added.