The Director of Public Affairs of Parliament, Kate Addo, has issued a statement in reaction to the scandalous sequence of events that took place at the Legislature including the invasion of the Chamber by soldiers.
Madam Addo is advising that that coup d’etat-like invasion of Parliament should be forgiven and forgotten so that Parliament can forge on to brighter days.
“Parliament wishes to acknowledge the events that characterized the inauguration of the 8th Parliament and wishes to state that while most of the actions during the night were regrettable, Parliament would however like to put them behind it and work towards a more focused, unified Membership aimed at promoting the best Parliamentary practices and good governance,” she wrote in a statement.
The Statement bore the signature of Madama Kate Addo herself and not the Speaker of the Hosue, Rt. Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin. It is therefore not clear if this is the position of the Speaker who is the leader of the House.
Already members from both the Majority and Minority sides of Parliament are calling for investigations into the scandalous events of the night which also included the MP for Tema West, Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, snatching ballot papers and running away with them in an attempt to scuttle the vote for a Speaker.
However, the one thing that has drawn condemnation from most quarters was the invasion of the Chamber by gun-wielding soldiers, allegedly at the behest of outgoing Minister of Defense, Dominic Nitiwul.
The National Democratic Congress has already demanded that the Speaker institute an enquiry into the matter and sanction all those involved. Madam Kate Addo’s announcement that Parliament has decided to sweep the issues under the carpet and move on therefore may come as strange to many people, especially so, when her statement did not say that was the position of the Speaker.
Meanwhile, Kate Addo also defended the Marshall who was seen in a viral video allegedly trying to stuff a ballot box with pre-filled ballots.
According to her, the officer involved was a Deputy Marshall and that he had actually been removing a Taser gun from his pocket to protect the ballot box when he was captured on camera.
Her explanation has however drawn skepticism as the item the Marshall pulled out of his pocket is whitish and looked suspiciously like ballot papers rather than a Taser.