MPs scuffle embarrassing; Parliament must condemn itself – OB Amoah

Member of Parliament for the Akwapim South constituency, OB Amoah says he will support an objective inquiry that will be commenced into the chaotic incidents that characterized the inauguration of the 8th Parliament on the 6th and 7th January 2021.

He said it is important for Parliament and its legislators to openly condemn the incidents to assure members of the public that Parliament as an institution as well as its members do not support violence, neither do they condone taking the law into one’s own hands.

OB Amoah made the comment on Citi TV‘s The Big Issue on Saturday, adding that he was personally embarrassed by the turn of events.

“We [must] learn lessons from this and then make sure that we do the right things next time. If we are ready to interrogate this very objectively, why not? Whoever at the point got the security services [military] into the chamber will [need to] have his side of the story. We all [must] learn from this,” he stated.

Several unexpected incidents led to chaotic scenes in Parliament during the inauguration of the 8th parliament on Thursday, January 7, 2021.

These include the confrontation between the two caucuses over sitting position, the NDC MPs’ challenge of the manner in which the secret voting process for the Speaker of Parliament election was being done, the invasion of the parliamentary chamber by armed soldiers as well as the snatching of ballot papers by the Tema West Member of Parliament, Carlos Ahenkorah.

Many have called for a thorough parliamentary probe of incidents that occurred on the night.

According to OB Amoah, parliamentarians did not set a good example for others through their actions on the day.

He said, being lawmakers, they were expected to behave in a much better way than they did, and it is important that the legislators recognized this and condemn it.

He said parliament risks losing the respect the public have in parliamentarians if attempts are made to justify the incidents.

“If Members of Parliament can behave this way, how can you tell anybody to be disciplined? How can you tell anybody to obey the law? Because the impression we are giving is that, if you don’t take the law into your own hands you will not get justice, and we are magnifying it that this country is now lawless? And this is in the Parliament? We have to condemn ourselves for what happened that day. If we do not do that, and we justify everything, it means that we are ready to repeat these things and the little respect that we have will be gone,” he indicated.

— citinewsroom