\nNii Kpakpo Samoah Addo <\/span>
\n<\/figure>\nA private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoah Addo says the High Court may have been too rash in ordering the\u00a0Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga to avail himself for charges\u00a0brought against him by the Special Prosecutor without consulting the legislature.<\/p>\n
He argued on The Big Issue<\/strong> that Parliament was a \u201cmaster of its own rules\u201d and that the court \u201cshould have taken a cue from Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\nMr. Samoah Addo suggested that the court could have at least passed on the case to the Supreme Court instead of ruling on the matter which has sparked debate over the immunity of Members of Parliament (MPs).<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps the court may have been minded when that issue came up to have stayed proceedings and referred that issue to the Supreme Court for purposes of dealing with whether the said letter or ruling by the Speaker gave Mr. Ayariga the right not to attend court on the days when Parliament was sitting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the court ruling last Friday, the\u00a0Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, ruled that Mr. Ayariga\u00a0could only honour court invitations when he is not undertaking any parliamentary activity.<\/p>\n
The Speaker also wrote to the court urging it to respect Mr. Ayariga\u2019s immunity per\u00a0Article 117, 118 (1) and 122 of the constitution.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ayariga has been arraigned by the state over allegations of procurement breaches in the purchase of some ambulances for his constituency as well as personal cars for himself.<\/p>\n
Consider compromise<\/strong><\/p>\nMr. Samoah Addo recalled the handling of the prosecution of Dan Abodakpi in 2007, where the court sittings were on Mondays when Parliament did not sit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe then Speaker said Mr Abodakpi had to attend Parliament, on days that the lawmaking body was sitting, [and that] he could not appear before the court [on those days].\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Samoah Addo was generally uncomfortable with any court ruling on the matter of Mr. Ayariga\u2019s appearances.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI think Parliament has tried to be flexible and also given a cue but unfortunately, it seems as if the court did not take the cue, made it\u2019s own decision and now you could say there is the need now for the final arbiter in our matter to give a definite ruling.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He said there was no need for a definite ruling because \u201cit may give rise to some friction\u201d and\u00a0\u201cmay not inure to the benefit of the constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Ayariga has said he intends to go to the Supreme Court to seek an interpretation of the constitution of the privileges of MPs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\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\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nii Kpakpo Samoah Addo A private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoah Addo says the High Court may have been too rash in ordering the\u00a0Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga to avail himself for charges\u00a0brought against him by the Special Prosecutor without consulting the legislature. He argued on The Big Issue that Parliament was a \u201cmaster of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":633331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-633330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
Supreme Court should've decided on Ayariga's 'immunity' - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/06\/10\/supreme-court-shouldve-decided-on-ayarigas-immunity\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Supreme Court should've decided on Ayariga's 'immunity' - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Nii Kpakpo Samoah Addo A private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoah Addo says the High Court may have been too rash in ordering the\u00a0Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga to avail himself for charges\u00a0brought against him by the Special Prosecutor without consulting the legislature. 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![\"Supreme](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghana-mma.com\/2019\/06\/Nii-Kpakpo-Samoa-Addo-4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Supreme](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/06\/Nii-Kpakpo-Samoa-Addo-4.jpg\")