Don’t suppress the Minority – Speaker Bagbin tells Majority

The Speaker of Parliament has advised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Majority in Parliament not to suppress the Minority because they have superior numbers in the House.

The speaker said this on Tuesday, February 4 when he addressed issues surrounding the suspension of the four members of parliament.

“Despite your numbers, you are not to press the Minority,” he said.

Speaker Bagbin has lifted the suspension on the four lawmakers who were suspended for the mayhem caused during the vetting exercise last week.

The speaker’s decision followed an appeal to him by the Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Marin to lift the suspension, a plea which was supported by the Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga.

The speaker in his ruling on Tuesday indicated that the affected MPs had shown remorse hence his decision to lift the embargo on them.

“As a father, when your son commits an offence, you don’t punish your son to the extent of breaking his leg”  Bagbin said.

” I will proceed to lift the suspension of the four Members of Parliament. The MPs who were affected can now return to the chamber or join sittings,” he added.

“To whom much is given much is expected, ” he added.

The MPs are; Frank Annor Dompreh, Rockson Dafeamekpor, Hassan Tampuli, and Jerry Ahmed Shaib.

The four were suspended for their role in the chaotic scenes witnessed on the evening of Thursday, January 30 during proceedings of the Appointments Committee.

They were captured on camera pushing and shoving each other as well as pulling and dragging tables, leading to the destruction of microphones used by the Committee.

The chaos resulted from disagreement among members of the Minority and Majority sides of the Appointments Committee. While members of the Minority felt that they had had a long day, thus could not continue vetting nominees after 10:00pm, the Majority members said the exercise could proceed without them.