NDC Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed has opined that the Supreme Court did not exercise due diligence before declaring a stay of execution of the Speaker’s ruling.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court chaired by the Chief Justice has granted a stay of execution of the ruling of the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to declare the seats of four Members of Parliament (MPs) vacant over the switch of allegiance following an ex parte application by the majority leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin.
This follows Alban Bagbin officially declaring four parliamentary seats vacant. The affected constituencies are Amenfi Central, Fomena, Agona West, and Suhum.
A formal petition was submitted to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin by Haruna Iddrisu, a prominent Member of Parliament from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former Minority Leader.
The petition triggered extensive debates and arguments within Parliament, with both the Majority and Minority sides presenting their cases. According to the constitutional provisions cited in the motion, MPs who abandon their party affiliations to run independently are required to relinquish their parliamentary positions.
However, in an interview on Starr Today with Tutuwaa Danso, Ibrahim Murtala criticized the Supreme Court for failing to thoroughly investigate the case.
According to him, the petition the Majority leader sent to the Supreme Court was flawed because it was based on last week Thursday’s votes and proceedings, which had not been approved by Parliament at that time. He further explained that the proceeding was later approved on Tuesday’s sitting.
“Any official document rightly to be used as an official document from parliament particularly proceedings in the chamber ought to be approved by members of parliament in the subsequent sitting. So when we sit today and then we have another sitting tomorrow we will approve the minutes or proceedings of parliament the next day.
Until such approval is done, nobody can use it as an official happenings or officially what happened in parliament. We approved what happened last Thursday just yesterday and that is why the first thing you do when you get to the chamber after the prayer and everything, the first thing the speaker does is to look at the vote and proceedings and it goes from page one to page two”, the lawmaker stated.
He continued: “So when there are corrections, those corrections will be effected and the speaker will pronounce that in the absence of any other correction as far as the votes and proceedings of the previous sittings are concerned, I have declared that to be an official document of parliament. Honorable Afenyo Markin went to the superior court of the land with evidence he got from the vote and proceedings of last week Thursday which was not approved. So either he scammed the Supreme Court or they failed to do due diligence. It was a complete illegality.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Salimatu Nuhu
