Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin has responded to reasons behind his refusal to ask the Minister nominee for the Greater Accra Region any questions during her vetting.
According to him, he was advised against heavily scrutinizing the nominee, Linda Obenewaa Akweley Ocloo as she had some challenges.
He made this revelation in an interview on the GTV breakfast show.
When asked why he did not ask Linda Obenewaa Akweley Ocloo any question during her vetting, his stated, “If you ask, they came begging that the woman could not stand the scrutiny so we just let her go.”
He indicated that although the minority did not ask any questions, the majority could have asked her.
“We decided to let it be but their side should’ve asked questions. They were begging that the person cannot stand the heat, because obviously they say she is a widow. They say the woman cannot stand the scrutiny and had other challenges so we let it go.”
Although he refused to reveal who the “they” he referred to were, he added that “after all she qualified under article 78 so we let it go.”
In what was considered by many as unprecedented in the vetting of President John Dramani Mahama’s ministerial nominees so far, the Minister designate for the Greater Accra Region, Linda Obenewaa Akweley Ocloo, completed her process in a record time of about five minutes as members of the Appointments Committee appeared not to have many questions.
After being sworn in, she was expected to go through the standard vetting process, where ministerial nominees are typically grilled on their qualifications, policy direction and vision for their respective roles for several minutes if not hours.
However, contrary to the norm, and what the nation had witnessed since the process began on January 13, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shai Osudoku was discharged by the Chairperson of the committee, Bernard Ahiafor, as no member on the committee had any queries for her.
