Minority to boycott state of nation's address over MP's common fund

The Minority in Parliament has threatened to boycott President Akufo-Addo's state of the nation address if their share of the District Assembly Common Fund for the third quarter of 2019 was not released.

They have accused the government of trying to sabotage their re-election prospects by deliberately delaying the release of MPs’ share of the common fund.

The Member of Parliament for Bodi in the Western Region, Mr Sampson Ahi, who raised the issue in an interview with journalists on Wednesday said it was a “deliberate attempt from the government to stifle us” and an attempt “to deprive Members of Parliament of working effectively in our various constituencies.”

He said the government was deliberately denying them the fund to deprive them of working effectively in their various constituencies.

He indicated they have planned to boycott the state of the nation’s address scheduled for [Thursday, February 20, 2020], if nothing is done about the situation.

“We have realised that government has taken a decision to deprive Members of Parliament of working effectively in our various constituencies, we are saying this because close to two months ago, the government released the District Assembly’s common fund to the District Assemblies but as we speak, we don’t know when they are going to release the MP’s share of the common fund and we see it to be a deliberate attempt on the part of government to deprive us of working”.