The Majority Leader has accused former Speaker of Parliament Doe Adjaho of remote controlling the Minority side of the House.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu is alleging Mr Adjaho attempted to convince the Minority to stop a live coverage of the sitting with the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission.

He did not understand why a former Speaker would still want to retain his stranglehold on Parliament and attempt to control the Minority side of the House even when he is out of office.

He was speaking on the latest row in Parliament over allegations of unfair treatment of the Minority by the Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Ocquaye.

The House was chaotic Thursday when the Speaker Prof Mike Ocquaye decided to allow only one question from the Minority Leader to the Agric Minister who was in Parliament to answer questions about the Fall Army Worm disaster.

The Minority did not understand why the Speaker will allow only one question from the Minority Leader.

Per Parliamentary convention members of the leadership of House are usually allowed to ask more than one question of a minister or other public officers who appear before the House.

The Speaker’s decision triggered chaos in the House with some members of the Minority banging the table, yelling and threatening to walk out.

Muntaka Mubarak who is a Minority Chief Whip was also heard in a pretty angry mood, accusing the Speaker of bias and gagging the minority.

He cited several instances where he claimed the Speaker refused to call him to speak despite drawing his attention for several minutes.

Haruna Iddrisu, who was also unhappy with the treatment also threatened to use Parliamentary procedures to reverse the ruling by the Speaker.

The Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu accused the Minority side of the House of breaching Parliamentary procedures.

He said, if at all, they had issues with the ruling by the Speaker, they ought to have exercised restraint and used the necessary procedures and not be unruly.

Speaking to journalists after the heated sitting, the Majority Leader threw a salvo at the former Speaker Doe Adjaho accusing him of trying to influence the Minority side of the House.

He said Adjaho had attempted to influence members of the Minority to resist the live telecast of the appearance of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission on the Floor of Parliament.

Mrs Charlotte Osei appeared before the House to explain why the Commission failed to include proceeds from accredition fees charged journalists for covering the 2016 elections in the 2017 budget statement of the Commission.

Lies

But the allegation by the Majority Leader against the former Speaker has however been dismissed by the Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak.  

He described as lies the accusations by the Majority Leader, adding, if he can’t be leader he should say it so he will be changed.

Muntaka Mubarak said if there is anyone being remote controlled, it will be the Majority Leader who has been taking instructions from the Flagstaff House.

Apology

Meanwhile the Deputy Majority Chief Whip Mathew Nyindam is demanding an apology from Muntaka Mubarak to the Speaker of Parliament.

He said the conduct of Muntaka and his colleagues was “seriously unfortunate” and described the Speaker as one of the friendliest in the history of the House.

Explaining why the Speaker insisted that the Minority Leader must ask only one question, Nyindam said prior to the Minority Leader, his Deputy had asked a number of questions which was allowed by the Speaker.

He said the Speaker took that decision because he thought the Minority Leader had waved his privilege of asking the question to his Deputy but when he decided to take that privilege, the Speaker decided to allow only one question.

His demand for an apology has however been rubbished by Muntaka Mubarak.