Haruna rejected de-escalation idea, I begged him to accept – Muntaka reveals

Parliament has formed a committee to de-escalate tensions

The House has recently witnessed near-violent scenes

The committee is made up of 10 members from both sides of the House

Minority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament for Asawase, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak has revealed that Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, was against the call for a committee to deescalate tension between the two caucuses in Parliament.

He explained last Friday on Accra-based Citi FM’s Eye Witness News, how he had to persuade the Minority Leader to change his stance and accept the proposal.

He was addressing earlier pronouncements made by his opposite counterpart, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, who had on the same programme made pronouncements Muntaka sought to clarify.

“They (the Majority) should remember, when they even came with this idea to find a small group that will discuss how we deescalate the violence, the first thing the Minority leader said was we don’t want to meet anybody. They should remember that.

“I had to persuade the Minority Leader that, ‘Leader, if it is about how we can deescalate the possibility of violence, I beg you, violence is not good for both of us. What happened, we were just lucky that nobody got hurt. We cannot wait for it to happen, so if there is a meeting to talk about how we can prevent violence happening in the chamber, I think it is a good thing’,” he added.

Subsequently, Haruna agreed that the two leaders of the House should mandate the whips to go and form the Committee in question, “because if falls within our domain, discipline and other things are within our domain,” Muntaka added.

The bipartisan Parliamentary Committee is made up of ten lawmakers each from the Majority Group and the Minority side of the House. The formation comes after near violent scenes were witnessed on the floor of Parliament on December 1, when the Minority moved to reverse an approval of the 2022 budget.

Below is the list of the 20-member bipartisan committee:

Majority Caucus

Dan Botwe( Okere)

KT Hammond (Adansi Asokwa)

Patrick Boamah (Okaikwei Central)

Patricia Appiagyei (Asokwa)

Lydia Alhassan (MP, Ayawaso West Wuogon)

Alexander Afenyo Markin(MP, Effutu)

Habid Iddrisu (Tolon)

Frank Annor Dompreh (Nsawam Addoagyir)

Joe Ghartey (Essikado/ Ketan)

Minority Caucus

Muntaka Mubarak (Asawase )

Rockson Nelson Dafiamekpor (South Dayi)

Sam George (Ningo Prampram)

James Agalga (Builsa North)

Kwabena Mintah Akando (Juaboso)

Enerst Norgbey (Ashaiman)

Richard Acheampong (Bia East)

Ahmed Ibrahim

Comfort Doyoe-Ghansah