Political Scientist, Prof Ransford Gyampo has condemned the decision to deploy the military to the floor of Parliament yesterday following the commotion recorded in the Chamber prior to electing their Speaker.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse Thursday, Prof. Gyampo described the decision as politically childish and infantile.

In his view, the most appropriate security service that should have been called in to handle the situation, if at all, was the police and not the military.

“…What did they (the military) do when they got there? In fact, they only aggravated the situation. And so the practice of use, abuse and deployment of soldiers to deal with matters that police and civilians can handle is unacceptable, politically infantile and must be condemned!

“Soldiers themselves are not happy when they are deployed to do these [things]. They are solely trained to defend the territorial integrity of the country and not people who are trained to be handling brawls that could be ironed out by consensus on the floor of Parliament,” he emphasised.

At about 3:00 am, during the inauguration of the 8th Parliament, soldiers were deployed to the floor of Parliament after some members of the minority repeatedly disrupted the electoral process for a new Speaker of the House.

The military, along with some police officers, heavily armed and clad in full regalia, marched to the floor of the Parliament in an attempt to restore order in the Chamber.

Their presence, however, further aggravated the mood of the NDC side, causing them to chant revolution songs and parts of the national anthem.

Citing the ongoing demonstration of at the United States of America in which the police was used to restore order, the Prof. Gyampo said: “We (Ghanaian leaders) quickly want to deploy and abuse the military in everything that we do, and it is wrong.”