Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho was forced to suspend sitting today after Minority and Majority engaged in a rowdy and heated exchange of words over whose government is or was dyed-in-the-wool with drug barons.

The Members of Parliament, who want to be acknowledged as honourables, threw caution to the wind when they were supposed to debate the 2015 budget, and blatantly subjected themselves into cacophonous cocaine allegations.

It all started, Joy FM’s parliamentary correspondent Elton Brobbey reports, when Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul was called to contribute to an ongoing debate on the 2015 financial statement.

He brought out two bags of rice he said weighed 12.5 kilograms, the same size as the amount of cocaine smuggled out of Ghana by a woman who was busted in Heathrow, London recently.

Mr. Nitiwul had questioned how the woman, Nayele Ametefeh, aka Ruby Adu Gamfi, was able to outwit security at the Kotoka International Airport with such a large quantity of the contraband goods.

According to the MP for Bimbilla, the lady could not have gone through the boarding gates without being aided by security personnel there.

He went further to accuse the government of being in bed with cocaine barons. The Majority did not take kindly to his comments and decided to reply in the same measure.

The MPs therefore disregarded the business of the day to paint themselves black with cocaine accusations and creating a chaotic scene with the ensuing counteraccusations.

The disorderliness went beyond control, compelling the Speaker to suspend sitting abruptly, Elton reported.

He reported the Speaker accusing Domini Nitiwul of showing “clear disrespect to his office” by needlessly raising the issue of cocaine in an inopportune moment.

According to the Speaker, he had a meeting with Mr. Nitiwul on a statement the latter had wanted to read in the House, but was asked to clear from the former first. That did not happen only for him to go ahead to demonstrate the bags of rice and disrupt the business of the day.

The Speaker subsequently summoned the leadership of both sides to his office to talk over the issue, after he suspended sitting.

So far, an Assistant Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Abiel Ashitey Armah and two others, Theophilus Kissi of the Research Department attached to the VVIP Lounge at the Kotoka International Airport and one Abubakar Ahmed, have been arrested  by the Bureau of National Investigations for allegedly aiding Nayele Ametefeh.

Parliament however resumed about 10 minutes later where Deputy Minority Leader apologised to the house.

 

Listen to what happened in Parliament today