Parliament passes E-levy bill amidst Minority walkout

Majority caucus reportedly ferry ‘sick’ MP to Parliament to vote

Minority accuse NPP of insensitivity

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed-Muntaka Mubarak, has disclosed that there were emotional scenes when the Majority caucus planned to bring in the reportedly sick Chieftaincy Minister, Ebenezer Kojo Kum to Parliament to aid with passing the E-levy bill.

According to him, the family of the minister was worried about the well-being of their relative.

Muntaka Mubarak, in an interview on Joy News, said the family expressed concerns that the Ahanta West MP’s health status will further deteriorate if he were to be shuttled to and from Parliamen

This, he said, was to shore up the Majority’s numbers should push come to shove.

The Asawase MP mentioned that the NPP had sought to devise several means to reduce their numbers including inviting some of the NDC MPs to the commissioning of the Tamale Interchange.

“I made sure nobody left for the commissioning because the commissioning was all part of their strategy to take some of our members unguarded.

“Because if you wake up…weekend, you were in Tamale and then Monday you didn’t know anything and Tuesday there’s commissioning and your people see you in town, the tendency for you to stay was very high.

“When we got this intelligence we had to get everybody to quickly move out on that Monday evening to make sure that by dawn Tuesday everybody was in Accra”

He stressed that he was able to marshal all 136 NDC Minority MPs into the chamber in a bid to defeat the passage of the E-levy even though the Majority deployed all their trickery.

He indicated that he got wind that the Majority Caucus were making preparation to bring in Kojo Kum to make their number 137 due to the absence of Dome Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo.

Muntaka narrated, “that evening [March 28], you have the Majority Leader, the Chief Whip come with the family of Kum to take them through where they will pass, how they will use the lift, how they will bring them into Speaker’s lobby and how they will get him into the Chamber.

“I knew this the night before [that they were planning to bring Kojo Kum] because the family were concerned about his health and they were really weeping…you can get any family member if they will truly tell you the truth…they were weeping that by the time you go through all these processes…by the time you are done, this guy could die and they were bringing them to assure them what they were going to do to ensure his safety and make sure that he gets back home at least not worse than before,” he added.

Parliament on March 29 passed the E-Levy bill amid a Minority walkout.

On the day, an ambulance was spotted outside the precincts, purportedly having brought in the Ahanta West MP.

The Minority at a later time addressed a press conference where Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, justified the walkout stating among others that it did not want to give the Majority a quorum for decision making.

Haruna and two other MPs have since filed a suit at the Supreme Court challenging the passage of the E-levy bill.