The Member of Parliament for Tema West, Carlos Ahenkorah, has issued an apology to Ghanaians for his lack of discretion in Parliament.
Following his snatching of balloting papers in the Chamber, the former Deputy Trade Minister, in a statement explicated that, he did it for the grassroots who “relied on us in power to survive, the president who needs some peace to run the country and the greater NPP party as a whole because we cannot always allow the NDC to threaten and vilify us”.
“With this success, they would tell us what they want and what they don’t in parliament because the whip system has been compromised. This is so sad. I’ll die for my party any day… I apologize though to my family and friends both far and near who may be affected by my actions. The NPP in me couldn’t be controlled. I apologize but I tried!!!”
Further justifying his actions, Mr. Ahenkorah noted the party had slim majority in parliament “courtesy the independent candidate from Fomena”.
“By this arithmetic, the NPP was supposed to occupy the right side of the speaker in the chamber. When we got to parliament, the opposition had occupied our seats. We tried to convince and work things out with them but they declined whilst almost assaulting the marshals of Parliament. We conceded because of the inauguration ahead of us and sat in their space”.
Also, with the announcement of the injuncted Assin North MP by the Clerk, Carlos Ahenkorah said the MP “couldn’t vote by virtue of a court order served on him”.
“After a long heated debate, the NDC still wouldn’t yield. Leadership went into conclave and returned with one of the most unfavorable agreements ever. That a clause in the constitution forbids anyone who isn’t qualified to vote in parliament to vote. If the injuncted MP elect decides to vote he suffers the consequences afterwards himself. How ridiculous! What if his vote changes the outcome of the elections before he goes to court?”
Mr. Ahenkorah intimated he couldn’t watch as NDC executed a well-orchestrated plan towards using NPP members to snatch the speakership.
“Looking at the slim margin between us, (NPP and NDC) all the NDC had to do was to lure or convince a couple of members of NPP and carry the day. So i indicated to leadership the dangers in that ruling. After voting and true to my words, the NPP votes counted 136 instead of 138 numbers we had. I wouldn’t accept that.
“The irregularities accompanying the voting from the start were too many which had compromised the voting so much so that I wanted to create a situation for a rerun. Just as my colleague from the other side took the ballot box away on three occasions, I also grabbed a few ballot papers before they could be counted so as to force a rerun”.
Dolefully diagnosing the difficulties ahead in Parliament, he noted it is a “very tough situation to have opposition as Speaker especially when he’s the president in the absence of Nana Addo and his vice”.
“My colleagues on the majority side couldn’t help take advantage of my sacrifices to force a rerun and we’d to settle for an opposition speaker. I must say I am heartbroken and dejected. We’ve not seen the end of this yet”.
