The Minority in Parliament on Tuesday (August 1, 2017) walked out of the house over the Speaker’s decision to forward the motion to withdraw the 2015 AMERI deal to the House’s Energy Committee.

Speaking to Accra-based Citi FM, the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka said, “this is the first time in my whole life in Parliament that I am seeing that a motion, when it is just moved and seconded, is referred to a committee.”

“You see, we keep talking about the gagging but people don’t understand because it is not for nothing that the Minority Leader stands. It is because the Minority have reasons to speak and if you do everything to prevent them from speaking, you make the House very difficult to govern.”

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“This is the first time in my whole life in Parliament that I am seeing that a motion, when it just moved and seconded, is referred to a committee.”

The erstwhile Mahama-led administration signed a contract with Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group’s (AMERI Energy) in 2015.

The deal was for AMERI to rent 300MW of emergency power to the country during the power crisis in Ghana.

The deal cost $510 million.

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It was later revealed that the government of the time was shortchanged by AMERI. The contract was overpriced by $150 million, which the government paid.

The motion to reverse this deal was filed by K.T Hammond, who was the ranking member of the Energy Committee of Parliament in 2015 when the deal was approved.

The Minority in the house walked out because they disagreed with the motion.