<<Print>>

General Secretary of the People's National Convention (PNC) Atik Mohammed has questioned the delay in passing the Right to Information (RTI) bill by the Legislative House.

According to him, it appears some Members of the House are "allergic" to the bill, hence unwilling to see to it being passed.

There was a sharp division between Majority and Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) in Parliament on Wednesday as the House resumed and was making considerations for the bill to be passed into a law, the Thursday edition of the Today newspaper reported.

The legislators were divided over the difference between the right of access to information and the right to information.

Addressing the issue on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Atik Mohammed quoted Majority leader of the House, Hon. Alban Bagbin as saying the legislators cannot be "stampeded" into passing the bill.

He wondered why Hon. Alban Bagbin could make such comment, claiming “when you speak in this tone, you’re weakening the fight against corruption. It means as a leader in Parliament, you’re not really very enthused about helping us to fight corruption. Because this thing should have been one of the earliest bills to be passed after 2012 if it was other jurisdictions.”

Speaking on the political programme, Atik Mohammed slammed the Majority leader for taking a ride over the right of Ghanaians.

According to him, the RTI bill is supposed to help Ghanaians request details of any shoddy work undertaken by the government.

He further noted that passing the bill into law is a necessary tool to checking corruption and any other malfeasance in the nation.

The RTI bill, Atik Mohammed, further stated it wouldn't have taken just the Running Mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to disclose government dealing with the United Bank of Africa (UBA) over the $1 billion Eurobond it issued last year, if the bill had been passed.

The PNC General Secretary said the bill would give all Ghanaians equal right to access information.

“It is creating the impression that some leaders within the House are allergic to the passage of this very bill. Whatever their motivation is I don’t understand because this thing, it is one of the strongest tools we can use to fight corruption," he cast doubt over the MPs' commitment over the passage of the bill.