Minister Grilled On Hate For NPP Officials

The Deputy Minister-designate for Interior, James Agalga was on Friday grilled on his inclination and swiftness to call for legal �punishment� for officials of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) on radio for certain utterances and behavior and whether such �inclination� will not influence his job as the deputy minister for the Interior. A member of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, who is also the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Akwatia, Baba Jamal, who grilled the deputy ministers, said Mr. Agalga has the penchant to readily call for legal punishment of members of NPP on radio. According to Baba Jamal, the deputy minister-designate quickly went on air and called on parliament to drag NPP MPs before the privileges committee for boycotting President Mahama�s inauguration and also boycotting the appointments committee�s sittings to vet ministers appointed by the president. The Akwatia MP added that recently when the vice presidential candidate of the NPP in the 2012 general elections was involved in a serious road accident on the Bole-Bamboi road, Agalga went on air and called for the immediate arrest of the NPP General Secretary, who called accused the NDC of masterminding the accident. In his answer to the question, he said Mr. Owusu Afriyie, affectionately called, Sir John made a critical statement to indict the NDC and therefore it was proper for the police to arrest him to furnish them with information on the accident case. The deputy minister explained that he made the call because he has passion for justice. He assured the committee that he was not going to be biased in dealing with any Ghanaian and that the laws of the land are there to deal with people who break the law or go contrary to them. When he asked whether the current spate of industrial strikes by unionized workers will not threaten the security of the nation, he said the strike actions have the potential to destabilize the peace of the country. He therefore called on all workers, especially doctors to rescind their decision because their strike action is completely illegal. He promised to ensure that police personnel are educated very well on human rights so that they do not unnecessarily abuse the rights of people, especially suspects. On how to solve the problem of acute accommodation facing personnel of police and fire, he said he will recommend to the substantive minister that government enters into partnership with the private developers to build housing units for policemen to help solve the accommodation problem. Taking his turn, the deputy minister-designate for Water Resource, Works and Housing, Vincent Oppong Asamoah said he would encourage rain harvesting both in the urban and rural areas to help address the shortfall in water production for the populace. He also called for public-private partnership to ensure that the affordable housing project started by the NPP government is completed to help address the huge housing deficit in the country. Other deputy ministers-designate, who were vetted on Friday, included Alex Kyeremeh, a deputy minister-designate for Education; Yaw Effah Baafi, a deputy minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources; Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, deputy minister-designate for Defence and Dr Tia Sugri, deputy minister-designate for Health. Today, those to be vetted include John Jinapor, a deputy minister-designate for Energy and Petroleum and Dr Hannah Bissiw, a deputy minister-designate for Agriculture.