Speaker of Parliament to act as President again
Speaker of Parliament Prof Mike Oquaye, will for the second time within a week, act as President of Ghana, and Parliament is to sit on Saturday morning to swear him in.
Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told Parliament at Friday’s sitting: “We are required to sit at 0830 hours in the morning and the meeting will not last for more than an hour and a half.”
The swearing-in of the President has become necessary because the President,Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would be leaving Ghana for Ethiopia to participate in the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU).
From there he would go to South Africa to attend the funeral of late South African musician Hugh Masekela and would return on January 31, 2018. Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia is also out of the country for a medical check-up in the UK.
Last Sunday, Prof Oquaye took the oath at an emergency sitting in Parliament when President Akufo-Addo travelled to Liberia to attend the inauguration ceremony of that country’s new president, George Weah.
Meanwhile, the Majority Leader has informed the House, in the Business Statement for next week that the Report of the AdHoc Committee tasked to investigate “the levy and collection by the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Ghana Cedi equivalent of various sums of money in the United States Dollars from expatriate businesses and related matters during the recently held Ghana Expatriate Business Award in Accra” is scheduled to be presented to the House next Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, Mr John Kwabena Bless Oti, MP for Nkwanta North is to ask the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development whether the Districts that were created in 2007 without seed money for take-off would be considered in the 2018 formula.
He urged colleague Members of Parliament to avail themselves at a Joint Caucus meeting to be held after adjournment next Tuesday, to discuss pertinent welfare matters.
“Members will be briefed by officials of state institutions providing auxiliary services in Parliament, including in particular, the Ghana National Service on safety measures,” Mr Kyei-Mensah Bonsu announced, adding “all Honourable Members are therefore encouraged to avail themselves at the meeting.”
Source: GNA