First Deputy Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament Joseph Osei Owusu has reacted to Speaker Alban Bagbin’s outburst at him, describing it as most unfair.
The Speaker this week went after the First Deputy Speaker accusing him of insubordination.
While reacting to the latter’s decision to dismiss a private member’s motion seeking to probe the government’s COVID-19 expenditure, Alban Bagbin expressed his displeasure at the “penchant of the First Deputy Speaker to overrule his rulings”.
According to him, such actions are illegal, unconstitutional and offensive and must not reoccur, especially when he had already admitted the motion.
Bagbin, while presiding over the sitting on Wednesday, February 23, 2022, said despite his disapproval of Joe Osei Owusu’s ruling, he will not take steps to reverse it.
“The penchant of the First Deputy Speaker [Joe Osei Owusu] to overrule my ruling is, to say the least, unconstitutional, illegal, and offensive. Be that as it may, I shall not be taking any steps to overrule the decision of the First Deputy Speaker to dismiss the motion as moved by the Hon. Ranking Member of the Finance Committee,” he said.
“This is the second time the 1st Deputy Speaker has taken the chair and has made a ruling whose effect was to overrule a position I have earlier on established before the House,” he said.
But reacting, Mr. Owusu noted that the Speaker’s comments were unfair to him
He indicated that there was no way he would touched a ruling by the Speaker.
He said ordinarily, he would not have reacted to the issue. However, the description of him engaging in illegality and offensive conduct was unfair.
“Ordinarily, I don’t speak when the speaker speaks. But I must be heard. It is unfair for me to keep quiet,” said in an interview on Newsfile on Joy News.
When asked if there was tension between him and the Speaker he denied it adding, we only disagree on the interpretations of the law.
He said disagreeing with him is not new but for him to say it is insubordination because he is now a speaker is unfair to me.
The Second Deputy Speaker had also issued a statement saying;
“On Wednesday, 23rd February, Mr. Speaker once again issued one such “formal” communication by Mr Speaker”. In the said formal communication, Mr Speaker purported to comment on the “error” which, in his view, I committed when I permitted the Deputy Majority Leader to raise a preliminary objection to a Motion Mr Speaker had earlier admitted and which was advertised on the Order Paper for the 23rd of February.
“Mr Speaker’s complaint is that I should not have allowed the motion to be moved after same had been seconded but rather I should have allowed it to be moved before the motion he had earlier admitted was seconded, I have read that Mr Speaker said that he had directed and actually instructed me, to allow the Deputy Leader to move his motion before it was seconded. Whilst I do not doubt Mr Speaker’s statement, I must confess that I heard otherwise and I indeed so ruled, and stated that the objection be moved after
secondment.
“But, Mr Speaker did not end it at pointing out my purported miscommunication or misapprehension of his “order” rather, he continued to comment on what he says has become the penchant of the honourable First Deputy Speaker to overrule my rulings is to say the least, unconstitutional, illegal and offensive.’
“This is where I find Mr Speaker’s ‘communication’ to the House most unfair and totally un-reflective of my conduct as the First Deputy Speaker in the 7th and 8th Parliament.
“Mr Speaker proceeded to cite as an example, my ruling on the motion by the Majority to declare the purported vote to reject the 2022 budget by 137 of the 275 Member House of Parliament as falling short of the number required to take a decision and therefore
unconstitutional, null and void. In fact, in his statement from the Chair, subsequent to that ruling, he described my
conduct as tantamount to in-subordination.
“On that occasion I characteristically elected not to comment on Mr Speaker’s statement in public in order not to create the impression that there’s tension between him and his Deputy.
“There is however no doubt that in putting the question when the record showed that there were less than half of all members of Parliament in the chamber Mr speaker had contravened Order 109(1)of the Standing Orders and more importantly Art 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution. The purported decision of the house was a nullity and I rightly so declared it.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
