Parliament has approved the nomination of five additional ministerial nominees to serve in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
The House, after about 2 hours of debate on the third report of the Appointments Committee for the approval on the nominees, passed five out of the six nominees to serve in their respective ministerial portfolios.
The nominees are John Peter Amewu (Lands and Natural resources), Ignatius Baffuor Awuah (Employment and Labour relations), Samuel Atta Akyea (Works and Housing), and Dan Botwe (Regional reorganization and Development), and Anthony Akoto Osei (Monitoring and Evaluation).
The approval of the minister nominee for Gender, Women and Social protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba, was however put on hold over challenges raised by the minority side of the vetting committee.
The minority in Parliament at sitting on Friday [February 3], rejected Otiko Djaba’s nomination over her posturing when she appeared before the committee on Monday,.
The nominee was queried by some of the Minority members on the panel for describing the former president as “wicked, evil and someone with a heart of the devil,” but she said she still stood by those words and will not apologize for them.
The minority also expressed concerns that Otiko Djaba had not undertaken her one-year mandatory national service because she had traveled out of the country.
Meanwhile, the speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, has ruled that the House defers sitting and vote on Otiko Djaba’s approval on Tuesday, 7th February, 2017, since there has not been consensus on her approval.
–
By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor