My resignation from Majority Leader role was voluntary – Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu quells rumours

Former Majority Leader in Parliament Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has dismissed rumours that he was forced out of his position in the House.

Speaking on the floor of parliament, on Friday, he explained that he chose to resign voluntarily amid discussions on whether or not there should be changes in the caucus leadership at the time the President reshuffled his government.

“A lot of discussions have gone on in respect of the subject matter. Some of them are very informed, others unfortunately not informed…Mr Speaker, it was amidst the discussions that at a meeting of the caucus, which the President had requested, I tended my resignation as Majority Leader in order to still the storm and facilitate peace and unity required for a party at this time,” Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said.

He added “Mr Speaker, that decision that I made was not within the presence of Parliament. This morning, I summoned the caucus meeting to formally announce to my colleagues that I've elected voluntarily to step down as a majority leader and by that leader of the house.”

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted that should the rumours have been allowed to fester it would further hurt the NPP’s chances of breaking the eight and retaining power in the 2024 general elections.

He stated that the party has faith and trust that they can achieve this feat despite some challenges they may face.

“The discussions had the potential of degenerating into consequences, the end results of which could be rather fatal, or as I have stated elsewhere, rather cataclysmic for my party in our effort to break in the eight, which effort has thus far, in the Fourth Republic, not ended successfully for any party in government.”

This follows reported tensions between the NPP caucus and the executive after it emerged that there were moves to reshuffle the leadership of the majority caucus.