News:
October 20, 2024
Leader of Government Business, Alexander Afenyo-Markin has expressed worry over the conduct of the Speaker Rt. Hon Alban Sumana Bagbin in his ruling that declared four seats vacant.
The Speaker, he said threatened him, (Afenyo-Markin) and became so apprehensive to the extent of calling the marshal on him; a development he described as most unfair”.
According to him after the Speaker had said whatever he wanted to say, “he was pushing me, under which rules was I coming under, basically stopping me from speaking; and did not want me to speak. I yielded to him that is his platform.
He said if Parliament is all about Speakers, he should take it. However, he has forgotten that it took fifty calumets from us to make him a Speaker.
“Often, he forgets and does the biding of NDC; if all the NDC members voted for him, he will not be Speaker, but we leave that to posterity and his own good judgement”, he lamented in an interview.
As to whether the New Patriotic Party (NPP) constitution is not specific that when you go independent, you are no longer a member of the party, he said the specific provision under Article three details the rights of a member; despite that, there is a clause that confesses the automaticity right.
Same party constitution gives due process, right of fair hearing on the member who is affected. A member shall have the right to participate in all activities of the party subject to rules and regulations.
He further pointed out that, that member should be heard whenever his or her activities and conducts are in question and under consideration. “If any member has decided to file as an independent candidate in the next election and the party is not happy, the constitution of the party enjoins the party to hear the person to explain his activities.
Again, we in the NPP, we have not written to Mr. Speaker. They said they were following precedence. Even if that is the precedence they want to follow, that precedence was triggered by a certain process.
“Has the NDC written to Mr. Speaker, has the General Secretary done that to the Speaker, that indeed our member Ackah has been sacked?”.
Has NPP written. I as the Majority Leader and Leader of the caucus have I written to Mr. Speaker to say that this is the communication from the party therefore please proceed?”
“So, you place something on nothing and that is why it is falling and crushing. There is nothing that support their action, he affirmed.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com