Speaker’s bias frustrating us – Minority

The Minority Chief Whip Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak has described as frustrating the biased posture exhibited by the Speaker of Parliament Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye when supervising proceedings in the House.

“Since this Speaker came we have been treated with a lot of disrespect,” he told Starr News’ Parliamentary Correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan Thursday.

His comment was after the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu was stopped from asking a follow-up question by the speaker when the Agric Minister appeared before the House for questioning.

The House was thrown into near anarchy following the speaker’s refusal to allow the follow-up question and that according to Mr. Mubarak was unfortunate.

“It is out of frustration…. the Minority, we have lost all the opportunity to vent our frustration so we have to, unfortunately, burst in anger which may not be called for, but our patience is running out,” he said.

He added: “We in the Minority are really disappointed in the manner in which the speaker has been handling affairs in the House since his appointment…. Since this speaker came, we’ve been treated with a lot of disrespect. You have a business on the order paper, you wake up the next day, they are out and you will not be given the space to voice out those concerns.

“If we don’t see a change in the way he conducts business in the House we will advise ourselves. We the minority, we have more than one-third of the House and he knows the implication of that.”

Also commenting on the development, the Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini criticized the conduct of the Speaker, labeling it as grossly disrespecting.

“I’m telling you that the Speaker is exhibiting such gross level of bias. He is, as it were, trying to protect his political party [the ruling NPP],” he fumed in an interview with Ibrahim Alhassan.