Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa South Constituency on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Clement Apaak, has asked the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs not to do anything that will land the Independent MP for Fomena, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, into trouble.
Mr. Amoako, on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, officially wrote to the Speaker of Parliament declaring his intention to join the NPP caucus in parliament for parliamentary business.
But according to Dr. Apaak, the 1992 Constitution stipulates that an Independent MP who decides to join a political party in parliament forteits his status as an independent candidate.
Speaking in an interview on A1 Radio’s Zina Yala program, the Legislator said there was no doubt the NDC MPs formed the majority in the 8th Parliament because according to him, they have the highest members in the House; including the Speaker of Parliament.
He added that “If so the NPP MPs want to consider themselves as majority in Parliament and claim that the independent candidate belongs to their side then it is neither here nor there because the same party cannot have the First and Second Deputy Speakers in Parliament. We will follow the law and the law must work.”
“We as the NDC said, the matter has to be resolved base on law and not on any mere saying because what we are dealing with is not a small matter. We want to follow the law, the standing orders of the law. And if any person tries to sit on the right-hand side of the speaker, then we will resist.”
Meanwhile, MP for Effutu who doubles as the Deputy Leader for the NPP caucus, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has reportedly called on the Speaker of Parliament to declare the NPP side together with the Independent MP for Fomena as the majority side in the eighth parliament.
According to Mr. Afenyo-Markin, the NPP side should be declared as majority because the Independent Fomena MP, has agreed to form a caucus and has a working relationship with the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition in power; thereby giving them superior 138 seats in the house to make them the majority.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Moses Apiah|Ghana
