The Majority in Parliament has justified its decision to stage a walkout during the vote of censure motion against Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

The caucus said the motion lacked substance and nothing could have been done about it. 

The Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin made this known in an interview with Citi FM on Thursday.

According to him, his colleagues on the other side of the aisle failed to do due diligence in wanting to censure the embattled minister. 

“The 44-page report by the ad-hoc committee has no findings or recommendations. So on what findings are we going to prosecute the Minister? What are we doing? It’s much ado about nothing. 

It is political showmanship. Why attack someone’s reputation before gathering evidence? You have no proof, and you say we should take a vote on the person?” Afenyo-Markin said.

The Effutu MP added that the Minority conceded they did not have needed evidence to censure the minister. 

“So the Minority was actually arguing on cross-purpose and say we should take the Minister to the firing squad. So we the Majority will not be part. The Minority has [already] conceded that they do not have what it takes to do what they are doing”, Afenyo-Markin stressed.

Members of the Majority caucus staged a walkout moments before votes were to be taken on the fate of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta. 

The walkout was after the debate on the report of the censure motion.

During the debate, K.T. Hammond, a co-chair of the committee that probed the allegations against the Minister, said they did not find a single piece of evidence to warrant the claims made against Mr Ofori-Atta.

But this was contested by the co-chair of the ad-hoc committee Dr Dominic Ayine. 

He insisted that they had “unassailable evidence” but were compelled to build consensus on the motion.

However, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, in leading his side to stage the walkout said they cannot be part of a process that was baseless and politically motivated.

“You [the Minority] want us to follow you on this misadventure. Mr Speaker, like Pontius Pilate, did, we will wash our hands of this”, he said.

Following the walkout, the motion was lost as it failed to garner the required number of votes to succeed.

Meanwhile, all 136 Minority MPs took part in the secret vote to pass the censure motion.