The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has asked the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority in Parliament to furnish him with documents that they will rely upon to execute the motion of censure initiated against him.
The minister’s lawyer, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, made the request Tuesday morning when the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee hearing the motion started its sitting.
Mr Otchere-Darko said the rules of natural justice and fair hearing required that the accused was not only heard but was furnished with the documents that formed the bases of the allegations made against him.
He, therefore, insisted that the Minority, led by its Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, provide the documents to him and his client.
The request was met with hesitance from the Minority, who appeared unprepared and insisted that the documents were already in the public domain and did not have to be tendered.
After back and forth on the matter, the co-Chairmen, K.T. Hammond and Dr Dominic Ayine ruled that the Minority presented the documents to the minister and the committee.
The documents were subsequently listed.
Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana
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Yes, i agree with Gabby on this demand, after all he who alleges must prove. My problem however stems from the fact that the finance minister shouldn't have brought in his relative as his lead counsel. There is this perception outside there that Akuffo Addo is running a family government. Ghanaians know the relationship between the president, the finance minister and Gabby. Some will now see the the finance minister as bringing his family member to defend him. I would wished he went for a counsel he's not related to as his lead counsel. In all this the fact remains that Ghanaians have lost confidence and trust in their finance minister and what ever efforts he's putting in place to revamp the economy, people will still not be satisfied. He should resign honourably. If a new finance minister takes over and the challenges still persist he (Ken Ofori Atta) would have been vindicated. At times change is good. After all it's change that brought the NPP to power. Ken's insistence on still wanting to stay at the finance ministry creates an impression of trying to hide certain things from the Ghanaian people . If it's about money, 6 years is enough to make money. If you haven't got what you want in 6 years, i doubt whether 2 years will be enough to get what you want.