Casely-Hayford to face Parliament
The leadership of Parliament is to consider whether a statement purportedly made by a social commentator, Mr Sydney Casely-Hayford, constitutes contempt of Parliament.
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He is reported to have said that: "Ghanaian Members of Parliament (MPs) only make stupid decisions and pass stupid laws."
The First Deputy Speaker, Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, gave the order to the leadership of the House on Thursday to look into the matter following a complaint by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kumbungu, Mr Ras Mubarak, that the statement, which was published on ghanaweb on July 9, 2017, was an affront to the integrity of Parliament.
He, therefore, requested the House to invite Mr Casely-Hayford to answer contempt charges.
Mr Mubarak held a newspaper with the said caption, and indicated that there was an accompanying video to his story in which Mr Casely-Hayford was seen and heard making comments "that affront the dignity of this Honourable House".
He quoted portions of the statement, which read: "These people are sitting there spending money like crazy, making stupid decisions and passing stupid laws. All they think of is let's pass this quickly, let's go to Senchi Royale, let's go and sit there and chill and come back and that is the pattern.”
He said Mr Casely-Hayford went further to say: "They don't read the papers that are given, they don't think through what the challenges are, and the first thing I would do if I had the opportunity is to break down Parliament."
Attack on Parliament
Mr Mubarak said not only did he attack the integrity of all MPs, past and present, it even bordered on promoting hatred and vandalism when he talked about breaking down Parliament.
He said it would take the whole session to go through the litany of legislations that had been passed in Parliament, decisions that made positive impact on lives of Ghanaians.
The legislator said Mr Casely-Hayford was unjustifiably inciting people against MPs, and added: "If his comments are allowed to pass, it will set a bad precedent and allow more room for people to impugn the integrity of the House."
"We have the duty to honour and defend the integrity of this Honourable House,"he said.