Tread cautiously – John Jinapor tells Supreme Court

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency, John Abdulai Jinapor, has advised the Supreme Court to tread cautiously over the vacant seat saga in parliament.

During a discussion on TV3’s Key Point show monitored by MyNewsGh.com, John Jinapor stated that the president, Nana Akufo-Addo was using the judiciary to gag the opposition party amidst the vacant seat saga which will avail to nothing.

According to John Jinapor, the opposition NDC has its own strategies and will not bow to any form of pressure or would not allow anyone to bully them out of parliament.

“Being a president comes with tact and maturity, and I expect the President to show that. But this attempt to push it down our throat, the attempt to rub shoulders with us, the attempt to use the Judiciary to gag us and to push us aside, I can assure you it will not happen, not under our watch. It won’t happen in parliament,” he warned.

John Jinapor further advised the Supreme Court to tread cautiously. The MP opined that the Supreme Court should have listened to the side of the Speaker of Parliament after he declared the seats in parliament vacant before suspending the decision of the speaker Alban Bagbin.

The Speaker had on Thursday, October 17, 2024 declared four seats in Parliament vacant.

However, the Supreme Court halted the Speaker of Parliament’s decision which declared the seats of four Members of Parliament vacant on Thursday evening.

In a ruling Friday afternoon (Oct 18), a five-member panel of the court presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, held that declaring the seats vacant goes against the rights of their constituents.

Other members of the panel were Justices Mariama Owusu, Kwame Adibu Asiedu, Ernest Yao Gaewu, and Yaw Darko Asare.

By the decision, the seats of the four Members of Parliament have been reinstated.