|
Parliament to sit next Monday at 21.45
hours
Accra, March 2, Ghanadot/GNA - Parliament would hold a
Commemorative Golden Jubilee sitting on Monday, March 5 at
21:45 hours as part of the country's anniversary
celebrations.
Mr Felix Owusu-Adjapong, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs,
presenting the business statement for next week in
Parliament, urged Members of Parliament to be punctual and
attend upon the House by 21:15 hours because of the security
implications and visit by President John Kufuor and other
dignitaries expected in the House.
The President, Speaker Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes and the Speaker
of the Pan-African Parliament would all address the
gathering.
Earlier, Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei, Deputy Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD, told the House that
breaking diplomatic relations with the Gambia would not
favour investigations into the extra-judicial killing of
Ghanaians in the Gambia in July 2005.
He said months of lack of cooperation by the Gambia
authorities prevented a seven-member team from Ghana from
investigating the matter in that country.
The team, he said, may soon visit Gambia to finalize
investigations into the killings because of the positive
stance now taken by authorities over there.
The Deputy Minister was responding to a question from Mr
John Mahama, (NDC-Bole-Bamboi) on the status of
investigations into the killing of more that 40 Ghanaians in
Gambia.
Mr Osei-Adjei said official information puts the number of
Ghanaians killed at eight and not 40.
He said government was frustrated at the uncooperative
attitude of the Gambian authorities, which stalled
investigations.
He said the seven-member team had began their investigations
in Senegal and had expected to conclude their work in Gambia
but after several diplomatic moves little progress was made.
He said the team has so far been able to ascertain the
number of dead, those unaccounted for and the cause of death
but a lot still remained to be done to conclude the work.
The Deputy Minister said investigations were still on-going
now that the Gambian authorities had changes their stance.
Mr Kwamina Bartels, Minister of Information and National
Orientation, also in the House to answer questions, said to
enable the Information Services Department to improve on its
outreach programmes, cabinet had given approval for the
procurement of 146 cinema vans for all the 138 districts and
the regional capitals.
GNA
|
