• Police is seeking to question Madina MP
• Majority says speaker breaching rule of law
The Majority side of Ghana’s Parliament said it finds it troubling the refusal of the Speaker of Parliament, to release a Minority Member of the house, Francis-Xavier Sosu, to assist the police in an investigation.
The Ghana Police Service on October 27, 2021, wrote to the speaker requesting the release of the Madina MP to assist them in investigations into some criminal activities that occurred during a demonstration he led against bad roads in his constituency.
However, in a response to the police, the speaker referred to some limitations in the 1992 Constitution and said he is unable to release the MP.
But in a reaction to the Speaker’s response to the police, the Majority side of the house has accused Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin of digressing from the precedent set by his predecessors in dealing with such matters.
“The Majority Leadership views the foregoing response by Speaker Bagbin as a troubling departure from how his predecessors handled such requests. To avoid doubt, when both Rt Hons Joyce Bamford Addo and Edward Doe Adjaho received those requests during their days in office, they responded by inviting the relevant MPs, held discussions with them, and then asked them to report to the requesting Police or investigative authorities."
“Again, during his tenure as Speaker, Rt Hon Professor Mike Oquaye modified the arrangement, including making the Speaker's Conference Room available to the Police to meet with MPs they were interested in and to conduct initial investigations. He did this to protect the dignity of MPs while at the same time ensuring that MPs are not put above the law. At all these times, Hon Bagbin, as he then was, had been part of the leadership of the House,” the Majority said in a statement.
According to the Majority, the Speaker by his actions is setting a trend that undermines the rule of law and that Parliament must be seen to be collaborating with the police instead of creating a false regime of separate laws in the country.
“Now the Speaker of Ghana's Parliament, Rt Hon Bagbin, appears to be instituting new rules that seem to undermine the Rule of Law without any prior discussions with the Leadership of the House. We ask: What exactly has changed?
“As a group, the Majority believes firmly that constitutionally guaranteed immunity for MPs in our democracy must not only be protected always but jealously guarded as well. However, never should we, as a Parliament, make the mistake of allowing immunity to be construed to mean impunity.
“We take a firm view that in the particular case under reference, Parliament, as the law-making arm of our democracy, has a constitutional, legal and moral duty to cooperate and collaborate with the Police to ensure that the Rule of Law prevails. Further, Parliament must not be seen to be creating a false regime of two separate laws in Ghana - one for MPs and another for non-MPs, Instead, Parliament must ensure the equality of all citizens, including MPs, before the law,” the Majority said.
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