Attempts to force Minority to sit in Parliament ridiculous - Sam Okudzeto

They also staged a walkout when the president went to the House of Parliament to deliver his first State of the Nation Address.

The three petitioners say the seats of the Minority MPs must be declared vacant because the sitting MPs, had by those actions, violated the constitution which mandates them to attend to all parliamentary business.

But responding to the arguments, Mr. Okudzeto said, “there is too much sensationalism in this country and I think people just want to be in the news.”

He said parliament itself had spelt out in its Standing Orders rules guiding the conduct of MPs and that if any member(s) violate any rules relating to attendance, the House would apply the sanctions thereof.

“Attendance in Parliament “is not a matter for the Courts; that is a matter for Parliament to regulate itself,” he stated.

“We should appreciate of course also that there are three separate [arms of government] established under the Constitution; there is the Executive, there is Parliament and there are also the courts; one does not have overwhelming authority [such that] the courts are going to be ordering Members of Parliament to attend meetings of Parliament,” he added.

The senior legal practitioner said it was frequently important to recognize that just as ordinary citizens have a right to protest and do get police protection when they are protesting, the NPP MPs were also entitled to protest if the reasonably believed their grievances before the Supreme Court to be genuine.

Even more fundamentally, the MPs, he asserted, were not boycotting parliamentary sessions as the impression was being created.

“People are claiming that the president was not elected according to law…Now if they want to boycott the president…that is their own business. I don’t see any power of any court giving an order for a member to attend Parliament,” he stressed.

Mr. Sam Okudzeto is convinced that the petition seeking to compel the Minority to attend all sessions was for nothing more than a publicity stunt.

Source: Myjoyonline