MPs can be arrested anywhere - Lawyer clarifies

The Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu including other lawmakers have gotten it wrong in their explanation of a provision in the constitution that Members of Parliament (MPs) cannot be arrested on their way to or from parliament for any offence.

“Assuming I go court or the police to initiate criminal charges against him as MP for Suame, the law does not permit that police should inform the Speaker of Parliament for his arrest”, a private legal practitioner, Kwame Adofo stated.

“I have listened to him and some MPs say police should go to the Speaker before they can arrest lawmaker…where in the Constitution can it be found”, he quizzed.

“I will pardon him and other MPs for contradicting themselves on many occasions because maybe they are not lawyers”.

“How is the police or any security agency going to perform their job by first giving the crooks or the bad guys notice we are coming after you”, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) member asked on Ultimate FM’s morning show.

“When you are reading an Act you need to think about the objective or purpose for which it has been drafted. …if you say police should inform the Speaker first, by the time the Speaker is informed will the person be there to make any arrest”, he asked.

MPs from both majority and minority sides have expressed their displeasure about the manner police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) raided the homes of two lawmakers who happen to be ministers in the previous administration.

According to them, the right thing the state security should have done is to write the Parliament through the Speaker to inform them about the offenses of colleagues before their arrest

But Lawyer Kwame Adofo insists the operatives of police CID did no wrong to have stormed the MPs homes by surprise.