The Minority members conferred for a few minutes
There was another walkout by the Minority on Monday, May 11 after the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament spiked a question by North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, from during the vetting of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s Supreme Court judge nominee Justice Clemence Jackson Honyenuga.
Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa had sought to find out what informed comments made by the judge and later reported in the Daily Graphic, purporting support for the Akufo-Addo-led government for another term.
Despite clarifying that he was speaking then on behalf of paramount chiefs of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP wanted to know the reason behind such a declaration and not flouting the 1992 constitution, which bars chiefs from engaging in politics.
But First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei Owusu, who serves as the Chairman of the Vetting and Appointments Committee, shot the question down by preventing Justice Honyenuga from answering it.
This provoked the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, who is the Ranking Member of the Committee, to call his members out for a conference.
Minority Chief Whip Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak told journalists that “obviously this the matter will not go”.
According to him, what the Chairman of the Committee did was “very bias” and “unethical”.
But they returned to continue vetting Justice Honyenuga but not after Haruna Iddrisue registered his displeasure at the action of Mr Osei Owusu.
The Tamale South MP said they still want the matter to be discussed and it should be put on record that they protested the Chairman’s interjection.
