Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken an exception to what they described as “an attack” on the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, by the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu.
Mr. Boadu had “advised” the Speaker to “rise above petty partisanship” for comments the Speaker made which he [John Boadu] said are “blatant falsehood”.
The comments, according to Mr. Boadu, were to the effect that the Speaker had told a delegation of the Ethiopian Parliament, that he [John Boadu] was on record to have admitted that the Parliament of Ghana had gone in favor of the opposition NDC, and so, the NPP had to resort to other means to win back some seats.
“They would have had a minority in parliament with a president. Their General Secretary even announced it, but they, last-minute, made some movements and some seats were snatched. That one is a statement of fact”, Bagbin was reported to have said.
However, Mr Boadu said the claims of the Speaker are not true. He insists he did not make such comments anywhere.
“The claim by Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin is a blatant falsehood as the General Secretary [John Boadu] had, at no point, made any suggestion or announcement to that effect. Indeed, records have it that, in all the post-election press conferences and media engagements, the NPP, through its General Secretary and other leading members, had always maintained that it had won a majority of the parliamentary seats,” he said.
But the NDC in a statement dated August 23, refers to Mr. Boadu’s reaction as an “attack” on the Speaker and asked Mr. Boadu to take responsibility for the comments attributed to him.
“We condemn in no uncertain terms John Boadu’s unwarranted attacks on the Rt. Honorable Speaker of Parliament, A.S.K. Bagbin for speaking the truth. We wish to state categorically that John Boadu cannot run away from his own words. He must have the courage to accept authorship of the above words and boldly stand by same”.
Meanwhile, the NDC has adduced what they say is video evidence which proves that John Boadu admitted that the NDC won a majority in Parliament.