{"id":330170,"date":"2017-06-21T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T06:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=330170"},"modified":"2017-06-21T06:00:58","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T06:00:58","slug":"parliament-to-summon-chieftaincy-ministry-over-christian-pilgrimage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/06\/parliament-to-summon-chieftaincy-ministry-over-christian-pilgrimage\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament to summon Chieftaincy Ministry over Christian Pilgrimage"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Youth, Sports and Culture Committee of Parliament, has begun processes to summon the Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Ministry over its\u00a0decision to airlift Christians on a pilgrimage to Israel.<\/p>\n
The committee exercises oversight responsibility for the Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Ministry, which has been criticized by some sections of the public over the pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”xhfjXGKvcD2XeEOVhSS4j4P7xPiLYaD6″]Speaking to Citi News<\/strong>‘ Duke Mensah Opoku, the Chairman of the Committee and MP for Mpohor, Alex Kofi Agyekum, said he had spoken with the director of the ministry and was told that \u201c the whole exercise is an innovation by the Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Agyekum said the concerns raised by the public had not fallen on deaf ears because “we as a committee, when we hear of such public agitation, our duty is to call for them [Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Ministry] to brief us about the whole modalities.\u201d<\/p>\n The meeting with the director was the first step towards inviting them to the committee, according to the MP, who added that, what was left for his committee to do was to “just officially invite them to the committee for us to be informed officially about such a programme.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of financial commitment, Mr. Agyekum noted that, the budget his committee approved for the Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Ministry did not have any allocation for the facilitation of the pilgrimage.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir facilitation is not going to let them delve into an approved budget by the government because the budget Parliament approved for them has specific and strict areas that they are supposed to spend on,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n