Month: January 2018

First Deputy Minority whip and Member of Parliament for Banda, Ibrahim Ahmed had challenged, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu to substantiate his assertion that, they presented a deceptive list to Parliament.

He noted that it is an erroneous impression created in the minds of Ghanaians, as his name was mentioned by the Majority leader, as one of the MPs who did not signed, “I can tell you on authority that I have signed against my name”.

When you take a critical look at the list, my name is there, but when the Majority leader was mentioning names they even mentioned my name as part of those who did not sign, he said this in an interview.

“I was shocked, so I went in there to look at the list and my signature was there, it is a wrong impression they are creating because most of the media men and women saw me and they said Ahmed “they say you did not sing”.

You cannot go wrong,  when we call for investigation then you want to use procedural technicalities, once the Speaker has gone through and competently accepted the motion and saying there is nothing wrong with the motion calling for constitutional invocation and summoning the House has done nothing wrong,  he lamented.

“That is why the constitution has given the Speaker seven days to go through the motion, Former Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho when he was a Speaker he turn most of those motion down. He would call you and tell you this motion does not call for summoning Parliament”.

He further pointed out that, “you cannot say this is the first time we are serving a motion”, He indicated that they knew it called for investigation, so they met with the Speaker of the said date he said he was going to refer the motion to the trade and industry committee to investigate.

At the business committee we all sat on it and said the motion should be sent to the trade and industry committee including the Majority leader.

They even said we should limit the time that members would speak on the motion that is why the Minority whip  spoke for only less than five minutes because it was a condition that was given, same apply to Ablakwa. You set the parameters we came in there is a change of mind.

I Believe in the competence of the Speaker, he is a Professor have been an MP and a second Deputy Speaker, he knows the rules very well.

–  Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin on Wednesday advised MPs not to take internal issues of the House into the Public domain but rather seek answers to issues they do not understand from leadership of the House.

He noted that the issue of recruiting new security personnel that had generated controversy, was an issue that could have been handled internally instead of going public and debating it on radio.

And added that this was an issue that could have been channel through leadership of the House and when not satisfied the Clerk and Marshal were available for clarification of information on the matter.

The Former Majority leader noted that,  a number of the security personnel  who are members of the parliamentary service had gone on retirement so the numbers had to be worked on to replace those who had left. Some passed away whiles on duty so there was that urgent need to get new recruitment.

This House has been confronted with security issues for some time now, but the House is not involved in the recruitment of employees of Parliament, it is usually done by the Parliamentary Service Board, he added.

He further noted that same practice applies to the Judiciary, recruitment of employees are done by the board.

“Mr. Speaker the police have always complained about their numbers and they have not been able to meet the demand of the House.  Last year we wanted 80 personnel but they were able to give up to 35 that is why the Parliamentary service had to resort to recruiting of private security to help address the shortfall”.

Let us be a bit more careful in the way and manner we handle such matters in the future, I stood up earlier because I did not want some of this information to come out from the first Deputy Speaker himself, he said.

Mr. Bagbin noted that the image of the House is being affected if we allow the media to push us around especially the integrity of the House.

And called for more meetings as a committee of the House to share such information in the future, “I would plead with members to let us hasten slowly, we are here to serve mother Ghana and its betterment. We should not run each other down, leadership is a difficult thing let us approach our leaders when we need clarifications on issues”

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com