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It’s Illegal, Offensive And Unconstitutional to Overturn My Rulings – Bagbin to Joe Wise
The Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has taken a swipe at his first deputy Joseph Osei-Owusu for consistently overturning his rulings.
The Speaker has described Osei-Owusu‘s actions as “unconstitutional, illegal and offensive”.
The Speaker on 23 February 2022, expressed his displeasure at his deputy who dismissed a motion by the Minority on Tuesday after Bagbin had initially admitted the motion.
The Minority had requested the House to constitute a bipartisan committee to investigate the COVID-19 expenditures by the government since 2019.
However, Osei-Owusu who was presiding at the time after listening to the arguments from both sides dismissed the motion on procedural grounds.
The Speaker in a strong-worded statement at the commencement of sitting today [23 February 2022] indicated that he will have a meeting with his deputies to put an end to the recurring anomaly.
“The penchant of the First Deputy Speaker [Joe Osei-Owusu] to overrule my ruling is, to say the least, unconstitutional, illegal, and offensive. Be that as it may, I shall not be taking any steps to overrule the decision of the First Deputy Speaker to dismiss the motion as moved by the Hon. Ranking Member of the Finance Committee,” he said.
Bagbin indicated that this is the second time the First Deputy Speaker has taken the chair to overrule his earlier ruling after the Speaker had made a decision to disapprove the 2022 budget statement.
He said: “This is the second time the First Deputy Speaker has taken the chair and has made a ruling whose effect was to overrule a position I have earlier on established before the House,” he stated.
