Gas cylinder causes stir in Parliament

Drama ensued in Ghana’s Parliament on Friday as a Member of Parliament stormed the Chamber with a Gas cylinder.

The MP for Tarkwa-Nsuaem George Mireku Duker walked into the lawmaking edifice with the gas receptacle to show as an exhibit during the debate on the 2018 budget.

Confusion ensued when the legislator pulled the cylinder under his desk to buttress his case for government’s cylinder re-circulation programme to be rolled out soon.

Moments after the MP lifted the cylinder, the deputy Minority Leader James Klutse Avedzi protested, arguing the cylinder is an “offensive weapon”.

Avedzi pleaded with the First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei-Owusu for the object to be removed from the Chamber because it puts the lives of others in danger.

In spite of protest from the Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu arguing the cylinder was without gas, the Speaker ruled that the cylinder even without gas can serve as a weapon.

He queried why the Marshals in Parliament allowed the MP to carry the object into the Chamber before ordering for the gas cylinder to be removed from the House.

The debate on the budget ends today, November 24, 2017.