The National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has assigned reasons for toppling the leadership of the minority caucus in parliament.

According to him, the previous leaders of the Minority group in Parliament led by Haruna Iddrisu failed to cooperate with the speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K. Bagbin, to make things easy for the party in the house hence his decision to remove and replace them with people who can cooperate with the speaker for the benefit of the party.

General Mosquito as he is affectionately called, cited an example of the difficulties the NDC encountered in electing their member to be Speaker of the House.

The former General Secretary pointed out that his topmost priority in parliament is to see the NDC cooperating with the speaker against the government which the previous NDC leaders failed to achieve.

“My priority in parliament is to see our parliamentary caucus working together and also cooperating with the speaker of Parliament.

“Why did we struggle to get an NDC person elected as the speaker of Parliament?” Asiedu Nketia asked.

The NDC National Chairman was addressing party members in the United Kingdom as contained in a video in possession of DGN Online.

He joined former President John Dramani Mahama last Friday, January 27, 2023, at Chatham House in London on the topic ‘Africa’s Strategic Priorities and Global Role’.

General Mosquito continued that “There are certainly some advantages and those advantages can be tapped into when your leadership is cooperating with the speaker.

“So, we cannot have a situation where other people's leadership is cooperating with the Speaker and our NDC leadership has challenges cooperating with the speaker. And if you are given a party whose leadership in Parliament is not working together, what would you do?

“You make the changes or you resign.

“And I’m not about to resign,” he asserted.

NDC is currently divided following the reshuffle in the leadership of the Minority in Parliament, largely described as a coup d’état and allegedly orchestrated by the camp of former President John Dramani Mahama.

Apart from opposition from some party supporters in the Northern and Ashanti Regions, with some even massing up at the regional offices, the minority caucus is also now divided.

Some 60 NDC MPs had allegedly signed a petition against the decision. They include; Alhassan Suhuyini, MP for Tamale North; Dr Kwabena Donkor, MP for Pru East; Dr Dominic Ayine, MP for Bolgatanga East; Sam George, MP for Ningo-Prampram; Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini, MP for Sagnarigu; Samson Ahi, MP for Bodi and Collins Dauda, MP for Asutifi South.

“We are concerned that this critical decision didn’t seem to have taken into consideration the unity of purpose and focus our caucus requires to deal with; the Electoral Commission’s intentions to introduce a new CI, the government’s IMF negotiations and its intended reintroduction of the ‘Agyapa deal’ before the House.

“We also think this decision would have unintended consequences as we go into our Parliamentary primaries,” part of the petition reads.