Mosquito bites Minority Leader

Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, for demonstrating gross disrespect to President John Evans Atta Mills, and for what he called the abuse of the parliamentary processes.

He also accused the Minority in Parliament of taking the nation’s democracy and rule of law backwards, and demanded the head of Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu. ‘They are taking our democracy backwards. By his action, it exposes them as a party which believes in freedom of speech only when they are in power,’ he stressed.

‘They believe in respect of authority of state only when they are in power, and when they are out of power, they don’t believe in the authority of the state anymore.

They talk about the rule of law when they are in power, and when they are out of power, then it is a jungle war. This is wrong,’ he said.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia, a.k.a. General Mosquito, told this paper in an interview last Friday that the Minority Leader must be summoned before the Parliamentary Privileges Committee. ‘He must be called before the Parliamentary Privileges Committee, because he has shown disrespect to the President of the land, and the Parliamentary authority.’

According to him, there are procedures that regulate all the members of Parliament, and that once the Speaker had ruled on an issue, all members were obliged to comply.

The NDC general scribe, who served two terms as Member of Parliament for Wenchi West in the Brong Ahafo Region, asserted that the conduct of the Minority Leader does not make him deserve his position.

‘His action reminds me of 1997, when the NPP first came to Parliament and insisted that they would not recognise or address Mr. Jerry John Rawlings as His Excellency, until sometime later. Some of us had to fight till we entered a truce, and this must not be allowed to continue,’ he recounted.

In addition, General Mosquito noted that the clapping of hands by the minority members, when the President was addressing the house, was also tantamount to a violation of rules and procedures of Parliament.

‘I was surprised that the minority were clapping in Parliament. Clapping is not allowed on the floor of the House, you can only say ‘yeah, yeah’ or ‘noo, noo,’ but not clapping of hands,’ he said.

The NDC scribe said the fact that President Mills did not recognise the former President, John Agyekum Kufuor, and the Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Mrs. Georgina Theodora Wood, should not have formed the basis for Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah to misconduct himself and disrespect the President. ‘It makes him a worse offender, and must be brought to book.’

Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, last Thursday, refused to escort the President when the latter had finished his State of the Nation Address.

He claimed that the President’s address was partisan, and that it was the saddest day in his life in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the NDC scribe has hinted of a major press conference in reaction to the NPP’s allegations of conflict of interest against him in relation to the Bui Hydro project.