Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Alban Bagbin, on Friday, suspended four lawmakers following a serious altercation over the vetting of ministerial nominees.
Bagbin described the brawl as a “gross affront to the dignity of Parliament but also a blatant contempt of the House”, adding that the repair and replacement of damaged properties from the parliament would be surcharged from the allowances of the culprits.
He also announced a two-week suspension for the four lawmakers, namely Rockson Nelson Etse Kwame Dafeamakpor, Frank Annor-Dompreh, Alhassan Sulemana Tampuuli and Jerry Ahmed Shaib over “contemptus Parlamenti in facie parlamenti”.
The chaos erupted on Thursday evening when the ministerial vetting committee members fought and destroyed parliament furniture during the screening exercise.
The vetting committee, comprised of members from across political arties, was to screen lawmakers from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who were nominated to become ministers.
LEADERSHIP recalls that in December, NDC’s John Mahama defeated Mahamudu Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to become the country’s president. The victory ended the two-term reign of NPP at the helm of Ghanaian affairs.
During the screening, committee members from NDC accused their NPP colleagues of deliberately stalling the process with lengthy questions.
They accused Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the NPP’s leader in parliament, of excessively questioning the nominees for a political score.
According to the lawmakers, Samuel Nartey George, nominated for communications minister, was questioned for more than five hours.
The process eventually ended in chaos. Tables were upturned, microphones were destroyed, and committee members fought.
Bagbin also revealed on Friday that a seven-member special committee will investigate the incident and submit its report with findings and recommendations within 10 days.
The incident was the third time in the last four years that Ghanaian lawmakers had exchanged punches during a legislative process.
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