The Minority Caucus in Parliament briefly walked out of the House on Tuesday in protest against the conduct of the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Bernard Ahiafor, accusing him of using the Standing Orders of Parliament to prevent members of the caucus from holding ministers accountable.
The protest followed Mr Ahiafor’s decision to disallow a supplementary question by the Minority Leader, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, during Question Time.
Earlier, the Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation, Mr Samuel Nartey George, told Parliament that the government had decided to restart the SIM card re-registration exercise due to several challenges associated with the previous exercise, including the use of stolen identities for SIM registration.
He also assured the House that the new SIM card re-registration exercise would be conducted at no cost to citizens.
In a supplementary question, Mr Afenyo-Markin demanded the total number of people who had used stolen identities to register SIM cards and the cost of the fresh registration exercise to the government.
However, Mr Ahiafor ruled the question out of order and directed the Minority Leader to file a fresh question for the minister to answer at a later date.
According to the First Deputy Speaker, the supplementary question did not arise from the original question answered by the minister and was therefore contrary to Standing Order 89(1) of Parliament.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Mr Afenyo-Markin attempted to challenge the decision before leading members of the Minority Caucus in a brief walk out from the chamber.
Addressing a press conference after the walkout, Mr Afenyo-Markin accused the First Deputy Speaker of frustrating members of the Minority.
“Anytime our backbenchers have the opportunity to be on their feet, he will use the rules to frustrate them,” he said.
“The rules are not meant to be used to intimidate, frustrate and, as he is trying to do, bring Parliament to a standstill. We’ve tolerated the First Deputy Speaker for quite some time. Even today, you will realise that the question I was asking was a public interest question,” he added.
Mr Afenyo-Markin explained that it was important for Parliament to know the procurement process being followed for the new SIM card re-registration exercise.
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
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