The Appointment Committee of Parliament has approved by consensus, the nomination of Dr. Ekow Spio-Gabrah as the Minister for Trade and Industry.
A report signed by the chairman of the committee, Ebo Barton-Oduro, which is available to citifmonline.com, said: “The Appointment Committee is satisfied that the nominee is suitable to be appointed to the position to which he has been nominated.”
Dr. Spio-Garbrah was among the newly appointed Ministers in President John Mahama’s ministerial reshuffle in June.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Q6VbI6cFWBWYJyBt7HE6HaSHcam2C1nr”]Parliament’s Appointment Committee vetted the former Minister of Communications under the Rawlings regime, in a session that lasted almost 6 hours.
In an interview on Eyewitness News, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament and a member of the Parliamentary Appointment Committee (PAC), Titus Glover, praised Mr. Spio Garbrah’s performance.
“He was the only nominee to be brought before us by His Excellency the President, so we needed to grill him and get the stuff out of him and I can say that personally, he had really excelled” he said.
Dr. Spio-Gabrah answered questions covering a variety of areas including trade, industry, and his political career.
In the report sent to Parliament, the Chairman of the Committee recommended that “the House approves by consensus, the nomination of Ekow Spio-Gabrah for appointment as Minister of Trade and Industry.”
Spio-Gabrah’s return to gov’t
Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah fell out of favour with NDC members after allegedly describing the late President John Mills’ appointees as “Team B,” adding that qualified and experienced persons in the party had been neglected during the appointment process.
But he later clarified his stance during his vetting stating that his article in the Daily Graphic was based on public sentiments aimed at drawing the attention of the Mills government.
“I was reporting what had been debated on radio stations and drawing the attention of my party and the government to what people were saying,” he clarified.
He maintained that his article was not an opinion piece saying, “I am not saying that I myself felt that way” but “by virtue of propaganda” the content of the article was politically distorted to “create the impression that this was my view.”
President Mahama’s subsequent nomination of Dr. Spio-Gabrah was hailed by many including some NDC party supporters.
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By: Nana Boakye-Yiadom/citifmonline.com/Ghana