The Minority caucus in parliament says they will not rescind their decision to boycott parliamentary sittings anytime the Assin North MP-elect, Gyakye Quayson is to appear in court.

The Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, says the caucus will not wait for the government to persecute all its members before it takes the necessary steps to stop it.

He reiterated that the Minority’s decision to boycott parliamentary proceedings and follow Mr Quayson every day he is to appear in court is simply to solidarise with him.

“It's a complete boycott. Yes, we are boycotting sitting anytime.

“We are group, we are caucus, and if you sit unconcerned for the government to pick your members one by one and persecute them in the way that we are seeing them doing to our colleague honorable Quayson, they'll come after every one of you" he argued.

“…..They have to contend with that. If they want him to be in the courtroom on a daily basis, we'll also be there on a daily basis,” the Minority leader said in an interview on JoyNews on Wednesday, July 12.

Dr Ato Forson’s assertion comes after the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin ruled and dismissed the Minority’s quest to have their names captured as absent with permission.

The caucus had in a fierce argument in Parliament demanded that their members’ names must be captured as absent with permission whenever they boycott sittings to go to court in support of their colleague Mr Quayson.

The North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa arguing on the floor on Wednesday, July 12 said that for the accuracy of records, their absence should be captured as a boycott.

According to him, this will avoid creating an impression that the Minority is shirking their responsibilities in Parliament.

“Mr Speaker, we had indicated that anytime our colleagues appear before the courts, we will boycott proceedings and yesterday’s [Tuesday] absence was a boycott, so I thought that it will be captured for the record. Because I recall that the vote and proceedings have captured previous walkouts and boycotts so I rise to seek your guidance on this matter for accuracy sake so that the impression is not created that we just are absenting and not working,” he said.

To this end, the Ajumako Enyan Essiam MP said the Minority will continue to boycott the sittings.

Dr Forson noted that “the government would have to choose - government business against Quayson’s appearance on a daily basis. If they want us to assist the government to run effectively, they have to choose from that.”

He asserted that the people who will bear the brunt of their boycott "are going to suffer because we've elected an insensitive government, a government that only cares about themselves.

“A government that its only preoccupation is to persecute honorable Quayson, so the government should be the one to be blamed. We want the people of Ghana to speak and talk about the fact that the way and manner that a government is treating honorable Quayson is not right,” he said.

Commenting on whether the Minority’s boycotting of parliamentary sittings is the best approach to fight injustice, Dr Forson said “This is our first sign of first activity that we are doing.

“We are undertaking this to signal the fact that we are not happy with what is going on. There are so many other things we are going to do in the coming days. We may escalate it to another level. It's a decision that we will take as a caucus, and we may escalate it going forward from next week,” the Minority leader said.

Dr Ato Forson himself is also standing criminal trial for allegedly causing financial loss to the state in the procurement of some ambulances while he served as a Deputy Minister for Finance.