Tamale Central Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed has spoken against the publication via WhatsApp status of Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Minority side deemed to have respected the party position to reject some eight nominees of the president.
The publication is being done by General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Fifi Kwetey who has spoken in harsh terms against lawmakers who defied a party and three-line whip to approve ministerial and supreme court nominees of president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Murtala explained on Joy News PM Express programme (March 27) that the continued publication which is likely based on evidence of how an MP voted will be unfair towards MPs who genuinely voted as directed but did not take a photo or video evidence as he did.
“I have a problem with that (the WhatsApp publication of photos) and I expressed same to him. I am not questioning why he did it but I personally… I am not saying there shouldn’t be consequences, but how about those who voted and didn’t have the evidence?
“So, they wouldn’t be mentioned (and) their constituents will think that they betrayed the party, when truly speaking, they never betrayed the party,” he lamented.
Murtala went on to call for sober heads amid the crisis that the party is faced with in the wake of the March 24 approval of six ministerial nominees at a time the number of MPs on both sides of the House were 136 which means a tie and a loss of the approval.
Murtala stressed that sober head needed to prevail because, “there are other business we need to do. I was very devastated,” he added explaining further that the approval was a missed opportunity to make a strong case on a national issue.