A pro-opposition diasporan group NDC Professionals Forum North America has described the controversial 450 new parliamentary chamber as the unfinished business of Speaker Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye.
Parliament issued a statement saying it has removed the project from its “present agenda” after the project attracted a massive backlash from the public.
Since then there has been questions about who initiated the project after the executive speaking through the Information minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah attempted to deny knowledge of it.
In a statement issued by Richard Ahlijah and copied to Radiogoldlive.com, NDC Pro-Forum North America said the answer to the question as to who is the initiator of the project lies in March, 2017 Ghanaweb article titled “India to help Ghana build 400-seater capacity Parliamentary Chamber”.
The article refers to comments made by the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament Prof. Mike Ocquaye during a visit to India.
Portions of the article stated ““…in an interview in India on the sidelines of the just-ended 12th Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Exim Bank Conclave on India-Africa Partnership in India that an Indian construction firm, Shapoorji Pallonji, which built the Flagstaff House from 2006 to 2008, had already put a team of architects on site for feasibility studies.”
Incidentally, the son of Prof. Mike Ocquaye, Mike Ocquaye Jr. is Ghana’s High Commissioner to India, a position which was held by the Speaker at the time the Jubilee House was built.
Mike Ocquaye Jr. recently claimed the 450 new Parliamentary chamber is a Chinese project but the NDC Pro-forum North America says he is contradicting his father.
“A clear contradiction that beats imagination. How could our Ghanaian Ambassador to India miss and mix the facts about a project confirmed as being sponsored fromIndia?”
“We suspect this project as a continuation of an unfinished business from India. The Chairman of PSB, and Speaker Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, then Ambassador to India, fetched us the Jubilee House with same India company. His son, Hon Mike Oquaye, now Ambassador to India is bringing us a Parliamentary Chamber by same India company on the blindside of Parliamentary members. This is an interesting coincidence,” the group said in a statement
Story by: Sena Nombo/Radiogoldlive.com
