Speaker Was Bias, We Were Many Who Heckled– Suhuyini

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini who was ordered out of the Chamber on Wednesday is accusing the Speaker of bias.

Alhassan Suhuyini said he and other colleagues from the majority engaged in heckling but was surprised he was the only one asked to leave upon the orders of acting Speaker of the Parliament, Joe Osei Owusu.

“Honourable member for Tamale North, please leave the House. Marshall, ensure he leaves the house,” the First Deputy Speaker ordered the Minority member out for making noise amid wild disagreements.

Read also: Suhuyini ordered out of Parliament

But speaking on Newsnite on Joy FM, the MP explained that he resorted to heckling after several unsuccessful attempts to catch the Speaker’s attention.

“The fact is that heckling is part of the parliamentary process and the fact is that I was not the only one heckling…I engaged in what parliamentarians do when they did not catch the Speaker’s eye,” Suhuyini told news Anchor Emefa Apawu.

First Deputy Speaker, Joe Osei Owusu

The MP who now will go down in history as having been driven out of the floor for not comporting himself said, despite the Speaker’s prejudice against him, he felt proud of walking out.

“I did so with the pride that I could gather at the moment,” he said questioning why the same action was not directed at his colleagues from the majority with whom he engaged in the heckling, some of whom he said, continued same even before and after he was giving the marching orders.

“Even before my name was mentioned he had mentioned other names and brought them to order but when it came to me he was intolerant. He did not exact the same measure of patience to me; he was not fair to me,” Suhuyini added.

He described the development as an embarrassment to democracy stressing that “if we are calling for equity it is important that we must always do that with clean hands.”

Background

Tensions rose in the House Wednesday as the Speaker asked the Minority, NDC MPs to apologise to the newest member of the House, Lydia Alhassan for tagging her as a ‘bloody widow’ on Tuesday.

The NDC MPs, however, said they would not apologise for their action and rather called for a review of the ruling.

Deputy Minority leader James Avedzi noted that the use of placards in the House was not new.

He noted that the use of placards is not always sanctioned by the leadership of the Minority and it would be difficult to identify the persons who carried the placards bearing the ‘Bloody Widow’, so the leadership of the Minority would not apologise.

The Speaker has since noted that the clerk of Parliament reviews the footages and identify the individual MPs who held the ‘Bloody widow’ tag so they face the Privileges Committee of Parliament.

—Myjoyonline