Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee will later this week engage the public on the vigilantism bill currently before it.
The stakeholders meeting was earlier scheduled for April 24, 2019 but was suspended indefinitely.
The Chairman of Parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee, Ben Abdallah explained that the meeting was suspended to give the public enough time to study the Bill before it is passed.
“We want to give the public enough time to study the Bill in order that we can get enough memoranda as possible. The Committee had to postpone the holding of the stakeholder engagement to another,” he said.
The Bill was tabled before Parliament to help deal with political vigilantism in the aftermath of the violence that occurred during the Ayawaso West Wuogon bye-election.
The Committee which has been charged with the mandate of scrutinizing the bill is expected to engage civil society groups, religious groups and the general public for input.
The Ranking Member of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament, Inusah Fuseini said input from everyone is welcomed.
“We will have input from civil society organization, political parties. The vigilante group, that is those who are able to attend to our invitation. The peace council and Ghana police service all of them might have to contribute toward bill and on Friday we will do the clause by clause consideration,” he said.
In April, the status of the Vigilantism and Related Offences bill, 2019 caused confused among members of Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee.
While Chairman of the Committee, Ben Abdallah maintained that the committee was considering the Bill and was awaiting inputs from stakeholders, the Ranking Member, Inusah Fuseini said nothing has been done about the Bill.
Mr. Inusah Fuseini was of the view that President Akufo-Addo was out of touch with the reality of the importance of the Bill.
According to Inusah Fuseini, the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of the House was asked to defer all work on the Bill to give way to more urgent matters given that the Speaker had ruled for it to be considered as the first item when the House is recalled.
But in May, President Akufo-Addo said he will continue to mount pressure on Parliament till the Vigilante and Related Offenses Bill is passed into law.
The Bill, when passed, will make acts related to vigilantism punishable with jail terms.