17 NPP MPs did not sign petition to investigate Mahama

Seventeen Members of Parliament who belong to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority Caucus were not signatories to the petition that necessitated the motion which was seeking to investigate President John Mahama over the Ford Expedition gift saga.

The names of the Members are immediately not known.

That means, 104 NPP Mps out of the 121 signed the petition which was circulated by the Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul.

This was revealed by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho when delivering his ruling over the proposed motion that was submitted to his office.

“Hon. Members, I received this request in the afternoon of Friday, 19th August, 2016 and noted that out of a list of 121 names attached to it, 104 members had signed”, he noted.

Kasapafmonline.com could also immediately not verify why the seventeen NPP MPs did not append their signatures to the motion which was calling on Parliament to set up a Special Parliamentary Committee to investigate the President for receiving the Ford Expedition gift from a Burkina contractor, Jibril Kanozoe.

The proposed motion which generated a lot of controversies in the public domain was however, shot down by the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho, at a sitting on Thursday, September 1, 2016.

The Speaker had recalled the legislators who are on recess to consider the Minority engineered motion invoking Order 38(1) of the Standing Orders of Parliament and Article 112(3) of the Constitution to support their action.

Order 38(1) of the Standing Orders of Parliament states “The Speaker shall, pursuant to clause (3) of article 112 of the Constitution, upon a request of fifteen percent of Members of Parliament summon a Meeting of Parliament within seven days after the receipt of the request, except that the meeting shall commence not later than seven days after the issue of the summons”.

Article 112(3) of the Constitution also states that “Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, fifteen percent of Members of Parliament may request a meeting of Parliament; and the Speaker shall, within seven days after the receipt of the request, summon Parliament”.

The Speaker in dismissing the proposed motion told the House that since the matter was already pending before another constitutionally mandated body, CHRAJ to investigate the conduct of the President, Parliament cannot do same.

That aside, the Minority did not use the proper procedure to submit their motion for admission.

Further to that since Order 79(4) gives him the power to either admit or dismiss any motion submitted to him there was no need to let the House consider the proposed motion which was seeking to seeking for a Special Parliamentary Committee to probe President John Dramani over the Ford gift saga.