Chief Whip of the New Patriotic Party Caucus in Parliament, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, who is also a member of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), the legislative body of the African Union, has called for calm following a row that ensued during the election of leadership for the continental body.

Tensions were high during the fourth ordinary session of the Fifth Parliament of the Pan African Parliament held in Johannesburg, South Africa to find a replacement for the incumbent President, Cameroonian Roger Nkodo Dang.

Parliamentarians were infuriated by an announcement in the House that the elections would be postponed because a staff member had tested positive for Covid-19.

According to them, this was just a ruse aimed at extending the term of office of Roger Nkodo Dang

This resulted in heated exchanges among the Parliamentarians, with one of South Africa’s representatives, Economic Freedom Fighters’ Leader, Julius Malema, threatening to “kill” a fellow Parliamentarian.

Commenting on the chaos created on the floor of the House, Frank Annoh-Dompreh said the behaviour of his colleagues was unbecoming of them and called for reasoning to prevail.

He said, “if we don’t make reasoning prevail in this issue, we will not have a justification for our trip paid by our member countries to come here and engage with these exchanges, it will not help us.

“Various caucuses have taken entrenched positions so people want to make sense, people are speaking logic, people are quoting protocols that exist that is binding, and yet nobody listens.

“We cannot continue on this lane forever, we have to make sense. We are thinking beings,” he pleaded with his colleague Parliamentarians.

He added that, “I see very experienced senior people in the chamber that is why we have to fall on such experiential knowledge and logic for us not to be caught in this quagmire of confusion”.

He later called for the setting up of an interim leadership committee to steer the affairs of the continental body while preparations are made for the general elections.

Meanwhile, Frank Annoh Dompreh has been nominated to Chair the Permanent Committee of Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment of the Pan – African Parliament.