Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has revealed that the fight against the electronic transaction levy (e-levy) by the NDC minority in parliament is alive and formidable.
Mr Ablakwa expressed that following the “Assin North Supreme Court decision”, he hopes many more Ghanaians now better appreciate the strategic manoeuvre of the NDC Caucus in Parliament to stage its famous walkout and deny the NPP a decision-making quorum to pass the “obnoxious” e-levy. He explained that the NPP’s game plan was to bring in Hon. Kojo Kum who had been confirmed, was waiting in Parliament’s clinic to assist the NPP secure a 137-136 majority decision in favour of the “obnoxious E-Levy”.
Mr Ablakwa noted that even if the minority had insisted on Hon. Quayson voting, the Supreme Court would have declared Hon. Quayson’s vote an “illegality consistent with their reasoning which they boldly expressed” at the Supreme Court.
“The war against the killer E-Levy is alive and formidable, albeit in a different forum — the apex court of Ghana — simply because of our superior strategy and unwavering resolve to stand by the Ghanaian people”.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
The North Tongu legislator highlighted that if the minority had carried through with its original plans of insisting the Assin North MP voted, that would have “marked the death of the five-month-long E-Levy resistance”. Mr Ablakwa indicated that it should be clear to all by now that the minority went into this “nationalistic fight to win” and not to be “pretentious or give up with treacherous ease”.
“I have no doubt that when all is said and done; patriotism, integrity and solidarity with the people shall triumph over betrayal, chicanery and gross insensitivity”.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Supreme Court’s ruling on Assin North MP’s case
Meanwhile, former President John Mahama, has described the Supreme Court’s ruling that prevented the Assin North MP, Gyakye Qayson, from performing parliamentary duties as a misrepresentation of justice. Contained in a Facebook post on Thursday, April 14, 2022 he explained that the apex court’s ruling is a deliberate display of disrespect to the country’s democracy.
“I cannot understand how an MP can be restrained from carrying out his duties when the substantive case to give finality to the question of his legitimacy has not been determined. Or is it the case that the outcome of the substantive case has been predetermined against him?”
John Mahama
Mr Mahama emphasized that the representation of the people is at the heart of the country’s democracy. As such, any decision that denies the “citizenry of representation is a travesty of justice and an affront to our democracy”.
It will be recalled that the Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, restrained Mr. Quayson from representing the people of Assin North until the final determination of a pending substantive case. The case brought against him suggests that he held dual citizenship at the time of filing his nomination forms to contest in the 2020 elections contrary to law.
The ruling by the apex court has generated mixed reactions, with some members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) describing it as an aberration of justice. However, the Attorney General, Godfred Dame, described the ruling as the enforcement of the long-standing position of the constitution.
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