Minority leader in Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has expressed frustration over the absence of Dr Ernest Addison, the Governor of the Central Bank during the #OccupyGhana demonstration.
A few minutes into the march, the Minority leader informed the press that the Minority would only present its petition to the governor.
He noted that should Dr Addison fail to meet the protestors, they would remain at the Central Bank.
But when a delegation comprising some prominent NDC MPs and party leaders such as Asiedu Nketiah, Sammy Gyamfi, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, arrived at the Central Bank premises to present their petition, they were sadly informed of Dr Addison’s absence.
Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng (rtd), Director of Security, who arrived to meet the protestors, informed the delegation that Dr Addison is engaging the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
His comments did not bode well with the Minority Leader, who asked whether the IMF was more important than Ghanaians and the Parliament.
Mr Ato Forson refused to present the petition to Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng (rtd) and noted that the protestors would return to present the petition to the Bank of Governor.
“I feel very disrespected as the Leader of the opposition in Parliament. For a simple reason that we demanded to present a petition to the Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Ghana otherwise known as the Bank of Ghana. The Governor has two deputies, namely Deputy 1 and Deputy 2.
“Unfortunately, he has decided to disrespect us and his two deputies have also decided to disrespect us by not being here to accept the petition. We never said we are going to present our petition to the head of security or someone responsible for security with all due respect. They have actually mismanaged the affairs of the Central Bank.
“They have mismanaged the affairs of monetary policy. You are not the one responsible and we will not give you our petition.
We will not allow you, going forward, to disrespect us and mismanage the Affairs of the people of Ghana. Your act, Bank of Ghana, has indeed pushed 850,000 down the poverty line. We will hold you accountable, particularly the Governor. We are demanding his exit. Now that he had decided to disrespect us, we will not present our petition. We will go and come back again. And we will come back and demand to see him in person.
“The crowd you’ve seen is just the beginning. We will come back again. He should better come in here. If he thinks that IMF is more important than the Parliament of Ghana. If he thinks that the IMF is more important than the people of Ghana, he is here, because of the people of Ghana and not IMF. So let him deal with IMF but we will come after him. We will come after him. Until we see him, we are not stopping. This is just the beginning,” he said.