John Boadu hits back at critics blaming budget rejection on his absence

The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, has dispelled the notion that the 2022 budget and financial statement of the president would not have been rejected by parliament if he was to be there on that fateful day.

On Adom FM’s Burning Issues, hosted by Akua Boakyewaa Yiadom, he said that like other elections held in the House, his presence holds little weight on the decisions of his colleagues.

He made reference to the controversial January 6 election, on which he stated categorically that despite his presence in Parliament, some of the Members of Parliament voted in favour of Speaker Alban Bagbin, thereby depriving them the vital vote that could have given them their choice.

He said “6th January I was with the 137 MPs in Parliament the whole night when we needed 138 votes to elect our preferred candidate, am I supposed to hold their hands in order to vote? To the extent that one of us voted for both Mike Oquaye and Alban Bagbin, it’s a secret ballot and you can’t do anything about it. Was I not there when someone among us voted double?”

Last Friday, parliament rejected government business and financial statement for 2022 fiscal year after the Majority staged a walk-out.

Some NPP party sympathisers questioned the whereabouts of the NPP General Secretary on the last day of the budget debate when his compatriot, Johnson Asiedu Nkatia, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, was occupying one of the seats in the public gallery.