Muntaka Dares Bagbin Over Absentee MPs

The Minority chief whip Muntaka Mubarak has filed a motion seeking to revoke Alban Bagbin‘s referral of three New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs to the privileges committee.

In a memo to the Speaker of Parliament on Tuesday (5 April), Mubarak prayed the House to revoke, cancel or rescind the referral of three legislators to the privileges committee by the Speaker for absence without permission.

The three MPs to face the privileges committee are MP for Dome Kwabenya, Sara Adwoa Safo, MP for Ayawaso Central Henry Quartey and MP for Assin Central Kennedy Agyapong.

The action by Bagbin follows a petition by former MP for Kumbungu Ras Mubarak to the Speaker to take action on the MPs for absenting themselves for 15 days without permission.

Meanwhile, the Minority has vehemently opposed the directive. The reservations by the Minority resulted in a standoff between the Speaker and Mubarak.

The Minority insists that it does not lie in the Speaker’s remit to initiate the referral without any request from a Member of Parliament as contained in the standing orders.

“Mr Speaker, with the greatest of respect, we agree you’ve made a statement. But if we allow Speakers to take petitions from outsiders to refer members of parliament to privileges, colleagues will be doing ourselves the greatest disservice. Because we will one day get a dictator Speaker who’ll soon take statements from outsiders and begin to penalise individual members of parliament.

“…It is on this reason that I call all of us [parliamentarians] to resist the attempt by Mr Speaker to refer our colleagues to the privileges and if there’s justification, let us get one of us as Member of Parliament who is convinced that our colleagues need to go to privileges to do that and not allow Speaker to do this,” he said.