Speaker, MPs isolate Daboya MP over 'Alomo jata' comment

The NDC Member of Parliament for Daboya/Mankarugu, Nelson Abudu Baani, has been isolated in Parliament following his infamous 'alomo jata' and stone-the-adulterous-woman comments.

Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho has described the MP's use of local slang, 'alomo jata' to describe some women on the floor of the House as unparliamentary and wants the Leadership of the House to take action on the matter.

He also directed the embattled MP to find another space to deal with his stone-the-adulterous-woman comment because that was not made on the floor of Parliament.

Baani, who has been hugely anonymous for many years in the house, became instantly famous after he contributed to a debate on the controversial intestate succession bill.

He argued: "Mr Speaker, the bill will bring a lot of controversy in my area. I went through page 10 and I saw the definition of parents and it includes the natural mother and natural fathers.

"Mr Speaker some of these women are 'Alomo Jata' (difficult or quarrelsome women) in their houses. If maybe a woman that I marry brings me a bastard, what is the punishment for those kinds of women?"

The comment on the floor initially did not provoke as much controversy as the one he made outside of Parliament.

He told Adom FM's Parliamentary correspondent Kojo Fodjour adulterous women must be hanged or stoned to death to bring sanity into families.

It was a suggestion he believed should be incorporated into the intestate succession bill currently before Parliament.

That suggestion has opened him up for huge public ridicule and criticism with some demanding a retraction, an apology and a resignation.

He was forced to apologise on air in an interview with Joy News but that is not enough to settle the matter.

Female Members of Parliaments have vehemently protested against the comments made in and outside Parliament.

One of them, Tema West MP, Irene Naa Torshie Addo, said it should never be said of Ghana's Parliament that the House accepted and glorified a comment by a member calling women 'alomo jata' and asking for their stoning.

She, therefore, demanded that the comment be expunged from the records.

The Chairman of the Muslim caucus in Parliament, Dr. Alhassan Ahmed Yakubu said, "I'd like to unequivocally distance the Muslim caucus from the statement by one of our members.

"...He made the statement as an individual MP and is not representing either the Muslim community in Ghana or the Muslim caucus in Parliament," he stated.

The Speaker of Parliament said the statement made outside the floor of the House is the MP's own problem and he must deal with it alone.

He reminded members that Parliamentary immunity does not extend beyond the floor of the house.