The majority group in parliament will be heading to the supreme court to compel one of it own out of the house, Hon. KT Hammond has revealed. He made this disclosure on Citi TV monitored by CitizenOne. The legislator said the decision of the speaker to defer his ruling on the embattled MP for Dome Kwabenya to October is problematic and may short change the NPP side of the house. The Adanse Asokwa MP added that it is the candid view of the majority that once privileges committee makes a determination, it does not lie in the bossom of the speaker or plenary to decide otherwise. This means article 79 (1)(c) has to go to the supreme court for interpretation.
“My point was that 97 (1) c does not look at things as it is. It was not a matter for the plenary to decide. It is for the Privileges Committee to make their pronouncement and then forward it to the Speaker.”
But his colleague and Ranking Member on the Privileges Committee, Hon. Ricketts-Hagan had a different opinion. To him privileges committee just like other committees has no powers of it’s own. He said the committee cannot bypass the plenary to direct the clerk to inform the EC to conduct a by election.
“You have to take 97 (1c) with 1125 which says when the seat is declared vacant, the clerk of Parliament should inform EC so the by-election happens. Until the seat is declared vacant, we, the privileges committee, have no authority to inform the clerk of Parliament to inform the EC that Adwoa Sarfo’s seat is vacant. It is based on that, that we say we do not have the authority to declare the seat vacant,” he stated.
Hon. Sarah Adwoa Sarfo was hauled before the privileges committee together with 2 other NPP MPs after it was discovered that they had absented without permission for more than 15 sittings. After broader consultation, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin decided to defer the ruling to October.
Meanwhile, the President has revoked the appointment Sarah Adwoa Sarfo as minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection.
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