The Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin, has asked North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, to desist from making a fuss about the alleged use of a luxurious chartered flight by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to him, Mr. Ablakwa should wait until his urgent question is admitted by the Speaker of Parliament.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin insists the practice of dealing with such matters in public while seeking audience in Parliament is harmful to the growth of democracy.
The North Tongu MP last week indicated that he had filed an urgent question on the said matter, but it has not been programmed yet.
The MP alleged that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has spent an amount of GHS 2.8 million on his recent travels to only South Africa and France using the services of a private jet.
“The Airbus ACJ320neo owned by Acropolis Aviation based in Farnborough, UK and registered as G-KELT, is the most luxurious and the most expensive in the Acropolis fleet. The manufacturers describe it as “the most outstanding ambassador for Airbus Corporate Jets.” It costs the Ghanaian taxpayer approximately £15,000 an hour when President Akufo-Addo rents it”, the legislator alleged in a post on Facebook.
He also accused the President of blowing the money “to satisfy his insatiable appetite and comfort at the expense of the suffering masses”.
But speaking to Citi News, the Effutu MP called on Okudzeto Ablakwa to respect the procedures of Parliament.
According to him, Mr. Ablakwa’s actions are not healthy for the progress of the house.
“Admission of questions is the sole mandate of the Speaker, and in fact, that is the basis upon which the jurisprudence of Parliament is mounted. You file a question, you are not sure whether it has been admitted or not, then you go out there in the media litigating the matter. So at the end of the day, if the question is not admissible, who do you blame? The Speaker or you will say you are being gagged?”
“I am saying that it is important that as MPs we will respect our own rules of engagement and create an atmosphere where the debate will be enriched, but this one-way approach and leaking things to the press and somebody has written a letter of resignation which hasn’t even gotten to the recipient, but it is already in the media, what are you seeking to achieve?” He quizzed.
