The Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Hon Atta Akyea, has restated calls on President John Evans Atta Mills to swear his Oath of Office and Oath of Presidency for a second time. He said a lot of legal questions arise should the president fail to re-swear the oaths. At his investiture, the president is required to fulfill a constitutional mandate of swearing the Oath of Office and the Presidential Oath. At his inauguration on January 7, 2009, President Mills duly swore the oaths, however he fumbled several times as he mispronounced words and missed lines in the oaths, administered by the Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood. The president periodically asked for repetition of lines and in some instances bungled the words altogether as he tried reciting them. For example, President Mills said “that I will at all times defend” when the Chief Justice had said “that I will at all times preserve.” Hon Atta Akyea who was guest of Oman FM in Accra said although the president signed an oath book, the recitation was equally important. The MP maintained that the oath was a sacred procedure with an important place in the Constitution which climaxes the procedures preceding the assumption of office of a president. In view of this, he stressed, the president must be compelled to recite the oath in order to clear the legal questions that seem to be hanging on the presidency. But Presidential Spokesperson Mahama Ayariga has in earlier reactions rubbished the calls, suggesting they are unnecessary. If President Mills is to follow the advice of his critics on the matter, he will be the second president after US President Barack Obama to swear, for a second time, an oath of office. Barack Obama had to take the oath of office again early January because of an earlier faux pas. Mr Obama originally swore to “execute the office of President of the United States faithfully”. According to the SUN newspaper, he should have promised to “faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States” as required by the US Constitution. The US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who administered the original oath, fluffed the line when he said it for Mr Obama. But Mr Obama was compelled to re-take the oath with Mr Roberts at the White House in front of a group of reporters. President Mills has already spent his first 100 days of office and sources close to the presidency say he is unlikely to repeat the constitutional mandate. Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com