Beastly scene on Monday night from Parliament House
There was pandemonium on the floor of Parliament on Monday night when the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill, popularly known as E-Levy, was being voted upon by MPs on whether it should be taken under a certificate of urgency.
After the melee, which has received wide condemnation, Majority Chief Whip and NPP Member of Parliament for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh claimed that a Minority NDC MP allegedly slashed the face of Mustapha Ussif, NPP MP for Yagba/Kubori who doubles as the Minister of Youth and Sports, with a sharp object believed to be a blade on the floor of the House.
The MP said the whole commotion was started by the Minority MPs who moved closer to the Speaker’s seat in an attempt to snatch it and prevent further proceedings of the House.
This is not the first time the NDC MPs have tried to snatch the Speakers seat and even attack the mace as well.
According to Mr. Annoh-Dompreh, several Majority members were also heckled by the Minority MPs during the free-for-all fight.
In the case of the Sports Minister, he was seen receiving a hefty slap from a member on the Minority side.
This came as a result of the sit-in Speaker, Joseph Osei-Wusu’s announcement that he was going out of the chamber after the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, had earlier left the chamber unceremoniously.
The Majority Chief Whip said the Bekwai MP (Osei-Wusu) felt unwell and also decided to walk out and hand over to the second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah (Fomena), to take over the proceedings.
The move by the First Deputy Speaker (Osei-Wusu) got the unruly NDC MPs agitated once again and questioned his decision to vote after presiding over the night’s proceedings.
The NDC MPs then started amassing closer to the Speaker’s seat and issuing threats to the sit-in Speaker.
This also got the Majority side in Parliament to defend the 1st Deputy Speaker from being harmed and immediately Mr. Osei-Wusu handed over the presiding role to the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, fight broke out leading to Mustapha Ussif taking his share of the unruly action after he received a slap from an NDC MP.
The NDC MPs namely A.B.A Fuseini (Sagnarigu) and Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye (Odododiodio), walked over to the podium and attempted to grab the Speaker’s chair, but they were prevented by the members of the Majority Caucus.
The parliamentary security then jumped in to stop the disturbances and the House was compelled to adjourn abruptly.
The NDC has vowed to stop the E-Levy pegged at 1.75% and even though they claimed they rejected the budget, their MPs on the various committees were involved in the passage of the budget estimates of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies for the 2022 financial year.
Missing Speaker
While the ugly scenes were unfolding on the floor of Parliament, the whereabouts of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin remained unknown, with the members of the Majority Caucus accusing him of unceremoniously leaving Parliament ahead of a crucial decision in order to give the Minority advantage.
Afenyo Anger
Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin said “the NDC’s determination to obstruct and frustrate the government business has today been supported by the Speaker of Parliament who is the law sovereign and president of the House.”
“And considering the critical numbers – thus 138 for Majority and 137 for Minority, this is the time we expect Mr. Speaker to live up to his own bona-fide to the people of Ghana, which is to show leadership,” he told the media prior to the headcount of MPs for the voting.
According to him, the unavoidably absence of the Speaker from the chamber was viewed by the Majority group “as a grand political partisan design” to frustrate government business, intimating that they did not want to believe the Speaker was giving tacit endorsement to this move.
No Work
“I regret to say that we cannot proceed to make a decision without Mr. Speaker. We need Mr. Speaker in the House. We need the Speaker of Parliament in the House because by the technicalities of our own procedures, if Mr. Speaker is not there, one of our own would have to sit in.
“And the imperatives of the Constitution are clear that he will therefore not have an opportunity to have his right of voting as a member.
“We are not in to look at the lacuna in the law which could also mean that when there is a tie, to the extent that the Constitution is silent to his casting vote, he could exercise his casting vote right.
“In Parliament, leadership is consulted and engaged. We have no information as to the whereabouts of Mr. Speaker. The leadership of the Majority has not been informed of the reasons Mr. Speaker is unavoidably absent this evening from the chamber of Parliament,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin said.
Finance Committee
Before the E-Levy Bill was brought to the House, the Finance Committee handled it at the committee level where they were also split on the bill.
Twelve of the Majority NPP MPs endorsed the bill to be sent to the floor whilst another 12 NDC MPs said they were rejecting it.
As a result, the Chairman of Committee, Kwaku Agyemang Kwarteng, NPP MP for Obuasi West, had to break the tie by voting to make the Majority 13 as against the Minority’s 12.
Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Cassiel Ato Forson (NDC MP for Ajumako Enyan Essiam), before the bill entered the floor said “We are sad, not only because we lost, but we felt that the NPP does not believe in democracy and if they are determined to do something, they want to push regardless of the cost.”
Majority Leader
The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu later said claims that the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Wusu left the Speaker’s seat to take part in voting on Monday night were untrue.
According to him, the First Deputy Speaker withdrew from the chair to take his medication and not to partake in the vote as the NDC tried to push.
The Majority Leader told the media that Mr. Osei-Wusu was indisposed and was ‘shaking like a leaf.’
“Is it the case that a Speaker can’t even excuse himself to visit the loo? Is it the case? The man was indisposed. He was shivering.
“And he went to the clinic, the record is there. So we had to persuade him to come and sit. He was in the chamber and he was shaking like a leaf,” he stressed.
In the absence of the main Speaker, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the Majority Caucus prevailed on the First Deputy Speaker to take the Chair.
“We had to go and prevail on him to come and preside. Of course, if he’s presiding, given his own long tenure in Parliament, his own understanding of the rules and procedures in Parliament, we thought that he’d be able to navigate crisis periods much more with respect than the second deputy speaker but it was getting too much for him.
“So he said he wanted to excuse himself to take his medication and then perhaps to come back if he felt okay, or perhaps maybe to sit somewhere,” the Majority Leader narrated.
He also said numerous calls he placed to Mr. Bagbin went unanswered.
Similar Incidents
On December 1, 2021, the opposition NDC MPs displayed similar unruly behaviour in Parliament when they attempted to manhandle the First Deputy Speaker, Mr. Osei-Wusu, who presided in the absence of the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, who was on a medical review trip to Dubai.
Mr. Osei-Wusu’s crime was that he had dismissed the request by the NDC Minority Caucus to have a rescission of the passage of Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government for the year ending 31st December 2022.
Following the First Deputy Speaker’s decision, there was a total breakdown of law and order as members of the Minority protested.
Dozens of the NDC MPs were seen pushing and shoving the parliamentary security officers in an attempt to get hold of the First Deputy Speaker.
The nasty scenes opposition lawmakers enacted in the House on that day were similar to what happened on the night of January 7, during the election of the Speaker as well as the new Parliament was being sworn in.
Footages showed Ernest Henry Norgbey (Ashaiman), Sam Nettey George (Ningo-Prampram), Murtala Muhammed Ibrahim (Tamale Central), Yusif Issaka Jajah (Ayawaso North), Emmanuel Abambire Bawa (Bongo), and Alhassan Bashir A. Fusieni (Sagnarigu) leading the onslaught on the First Deputy Speaker.
They later succeeded in throwing on the floor the Speaker’s Chair after Mr. Osei-Wusu had been ushered out of the chamber.
In the Monday night’s incident, the opposition MPs could not succeed in their plan to take away the Speaker’s chair and therefore decided to vent their spleen on their NPP opponents.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House