{"id":466035,"date":"2018-02-20T19:40:59","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T19:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2018\/02\/20\/amidu-cruises-to-victory-as-parliament-approves-special-prosecutor\/"},"modified":"2018-02-20T19:40:59","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T19:40:59","slug":"amidu-cruises-to-victory-as-parliament-approves-special-prosecutor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/02\/20\/amidu-cruises-to-victory-as-parliament-approves-special-prosecutor\/","title":{"rendered":"Amidu cruises to victory as Parliament approves Special Prosecutor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/20294427.295.jpg\" alt=\"Speaker Mike Oquaye213\" title=\"Speaker Mike Oquaye213\" width=\"295\" height=\"193\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Speaker of Parliament, Mike Ocquaye<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125813973067\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125813973067\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/1519155659_339_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\">Ghana&#8217;s longest-serving deputy Attorney-General has been approved by Parliament as the Special Prosecutor tasked to fight political corruption.<\/p>\n<p>Martin Amidu got support from both sides of the House after a grueling eight hours of vetting at the Appointments Committee last week.<\/p>\n<p>MPs from both sides of the House praised the one-time National Democratic Congress (NDC) Vice-Presidential candidate as a man of principles and of integrity.<\/p>\n<p>But the Minority MPs still found space to point out some personality flaws of the 66-year old politician.<\/p>\n<p>Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Ocquaye, has directed debate continues on the approval of Martin Amidu as Special Prosecutor despite a suit in court.<\/p>\n<p>Rising on a point of Order, Bolgatanga East MP, Dominic Ayine drew the Speaker&#8217;s attention to a suit challenging the eligibility of Mr. Amidu for the post.<\/p>\n<p>The deputy ranking member on parliament\u2019s Constitutional and Legal Affairs committee, who filed the suit last week says, the 66-year old nominee is unqualified for the post.<\/p>\n<p>This is because he is past the statutory age limit for public service &#8211; 66 years.<\/p>\n<p>Quoting Standing Orders of parliament, he requested that the speaker rules on whether the house can debate an issue which is being heard by the courts.<\/p>\n<p>But Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, rebutted explaining that the NDC MP&#8217;s intervention was premature.<\/p>\n<p>This is because, by Standing Orders 81, the motion has to be moved and seconded before any discussion including Ayine&#8217;s intervention can be entertained.<\/p>\n<p>But rising to Ayine&#8217;s defence, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, rejected the Majority Leader&#8217;s intervention.<\/p>\n<p>He said during the debate on the reduction of the Special Petroleum Tax he was told his intervention was belated.<\/p>\n<p>The same Majority Leader told him, he should have spoken earlier before the motion was moved and seconded.<\/p>\n<p>Haruna Iddrisu wanted the Majority Leader to allow the Speaker to rule on Dominic Ayine&#8217;s Point of Order.<\/p>\n<p>The Speaker, ruling on the matter said: &#8220;If a mere filing of a writ in any court should stop parliament from doing its work then, of course, Parliament is subjugated automatically to the court.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is nothing before me to persuade me that the matter allegedly before the court\u2026.is such that Parliament cannot do its work,&#8221; Prof. Oquaye ruled.<\/p>\n<p>Backing the Majority Leader&#8217;s explanation of the proper procedure, the Speaker reiterated that a motion must be moved and seconded before an MP can raise an objection or refer to it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We must learn to learn,&#8221; he said and dismissed Ayine&#8217;s Point of Order.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaker of Parliament, Mike Ocquaye Ghana&#8217;s longest-serving deputy Attorney-General has been approved by Parliament as the Special Prosecutor tasked to fight political corruption. Martin Amidu got support from both sides of the House after a grueling eight hours of vetting at the Appointments Committee last week. MPs from both sides of the House praised the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":399931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}