Samuel Atta Akyea, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South, has described the conflict between President Nana Akufo-Addo and the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, as unfortunate, attributing the fault to the latter.
Mr Bagbin has vowed to resist any attempts by the government to undermine Ghana’s sovereignty. He issued a strong warning against any actions that could jeopardise Ghana’s democracy during his tenure as Speaker.
His comments were in response to a letter from President Akufo-Addo, dated March 18, 2024, in which the President instructed Parliament not to forward the anti-gay bill for his approval.
The Speaker has also halted the approval of the consideration of Ministers and Deputy Ministers of State nominated by President Akufo-Addo due to an interlocutory injunction filed at the Supreme Court by the MP for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Etse K. Dafeamekpor.
In a Facebook post, he strongly criticised the President, stating, “The Parliament of Ghana under my leadership will resist any affront on the democracy of Ghana. We will not allow a government to undermine the sovereign will of the people expressed through their representatives.”
Speaking in an Eyewitness News interview with Selorm Adonoo on Citi FM on Thursday, Mr Akyea disagreed with the Speaker, asserting that there was no affront to the country’s democracy or parliament.
“It’s very unfortunate that there seems to be a collision course between the executive and the head of parliament about what I might perceive as a fundamental error on the part of Mr Speaker. In the first instance, the president was saying that because of some processes filed in the Supreme Court, he doesn’t believe that we should ferry to him the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill 2024 for assent because there is a pending injunction about two suits in the Supreme Court.”
“…The speaker believes that the president’s letter is an affront to the dignity of parliament and Mr. Speaker is also of the view that that amounts to contempt, the president cannot bring such a letter to parliament and because of that if the president is trying to respect the injunctive processes in the Supreme Court that is up to the president but that is an affront to parliament. Most of us believe that that cannot be the case at all,” he stated.
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