Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, has said the reason his caucus approved some three nominees of President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
There was hue and cry in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Hawa Koomson and Dr. Afriyie Akoto were approved by Parliament through secret balloting.
The approval which hit the party so hard caused its Communications Director to issue a statement blaming the Speaker of Parliament, Minority Leader and Minority Chief Whip for pushing their selfish agenda.
But speaking on Accra-based Adom TV in an interview, the Asawase Member of Parliament indicated the Minority was handicapped during the process considering the fact that seven of its members were not present during the sitting.
He said they did not want to engage in the heated arguments and “fight” that ensued on January 6 because after what they did in securing the Speaker seat in Parliament, over twenty members of the Minority got infected with Covid-19 and some were still in treatment centers recovering.
“A number of our members thought we had the power to reject them. After 6th and 7th when we engaged in that fracas and the Soldiers came in, we all came to the middle of the chamber to sing and after what we did, 23 of our members got Covid.
So before we were going into the chamber, me as whip reported that I didn’t have seven of my members, till now some of my members are at the Covid center. Did we really have what it takes to do what people expected us to do? We didn’t.”