General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa should have issued an apology after his resignation from the Appointments Committee.

While it is unclear why he resigned, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, in an interview on JoyNews, intimated that if his resignation is in correlation with the approval of the Akufo-Addo’s ministerial nominees, then his decision holds no water since he partook in the arrival at a consensus.

“If it has something to do with the work that has been concluded on the vetting of the main ministers then my humble suggestion is that the resignation is belated, even if it is not belated it should go further to explain.

“If you [Okudzeto Ablakwa] participate in all that and you have to resign, my humble view is that you resign and offer some apology that you have acted in certain ways against certain principles that you hold,” he said on The Probe.

His comment comes on the back of the resignation of the former Education Minister from the Appointments Committee on Wednesday, March 30.

Explaining the rationale behind his decision, Mr Ablakwa in his letter addressed to the Speaker, Alban Kingsford Bagbin indicated that his resignation comes “after days of careful reflection and thoughtful considerations.”

But the General Secretary of the NDC believes Mr Ablakwa could have opposed the approval of the nominees rather than resigning.

“If it [resignation] had come earlier when the approval was about to happen, and you said, look I am against it. If there was any pressure brought to bear on you to act in ways that you did not agree, you can say that I will choose to resign rather than remain here in participating in this approval this approval,” Mr Nketia told host Emefa Apawu.

He further cited an instance where he had to oppose the approval of a ministerial nominee during his time in Parliament as an MP and a member of the Appointment Committee.

According to him, even though he single handedly fought against the approval of the minister-designate, he still stood his ground and saw the disqualification of the nominee.

“If I take my self as an example, I was on the appointment committee for 12 years there were occasions where I took a position not only against my party but the whole parliament so I was one person against 199 members of the Parliament.

“And I proceeded in disqualifying somebody and prevented him from becoming a minister. There were others which I worked against and spoke openly against and I told everybody in Ghana where I stood on,” he reminisced.

However, in the case of Mr Ablakwa, he said, "what we saw was that the Appointment Committee had approved all the ministers by consensus and the Appointment Committee includes Hon Ablakwa."

"Then you come out to resign and say because of principles. What principle?” he quizzed.