The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye on Saturday suspended the sittings of Parliament.
However, the Minority disagreed emphasising that the Speaker should have adjourned sitting sine dine.
According to the Speaker, the House was suspended because most of the businesses which needed to be attended to by the Order Paper were not ready.
The House resumed sitting in the afternoon to approve a number loan agreements, and suspended again awaiting the arrival of the Speaker to come and ostensibly announce the adjournment.
When the Speaker assumed his seat he said, “Honourable members, we are suspending on this day and this honourable House will stand suspended until the Speaker, in consultation with the leadership of the House deem it fit to ask the House to resume sittings.”
“Honourable, members, we are not rising today, but we are suspending sittings indefinitely. If we should rise, then on an emergency where our intervention will be required, we may need two weeks’ notice according to the Constitution and the Standing Orders. Once sitting is suspended, we can ask the House to proceed to work in a day or two,” he said.
In a related development, the removal of the Maze, which is the symbol of Parliamentary authority from the Chamber after the Speaker had announced the suspension of sitting generated debate as to whether the House had been adjourned sine dine or suspended.
This is because, according to Parliamentary norms and practices, in all cases when Parliament suspends sitting, the Maze is left at the Chamber and the Speaker informally exits through the side exit to his right leading to the Speakers’ changing room.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu argued that the Speaker taking the Maze away was indicative that “He has by Parliamentary protocols and Standing Order adjourned sittings and by extension sine dine since the Maze has left the Chamber.”
However, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensa-Bonsu debunked that assertion maintaining that the Maze, which is gold-plated could not be left all this while in Chamber when Parliament was on indefinite suspension.
He said the Speaker by not using the unofficial exit, as was usually the case, during suspensions, was not a big deal since there was no specific rules dictating which door the Speaker needed to use for his exit.
Meanwhile, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu and the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye seemed to be at loggerheads for the past few weeks over a letter the Minority Leader said he had written to the Speaker’s Office on COVID-19.
The Speaker responding to the issue said he had not received any letter, let alone read its content, but the Minority Leader said he felt slighted that the Speaker had not accorded him and his office any respect by not responding to the letter.
However, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, explaining issues on the correspondence from the Minority Leader to the Parliamentary Press Corps said the Speaker was equally slighted by the Minority Leader’s conduct when he leaked the correspondence to the media though the Speaker had explained that he had not seen any letter.
He said the Speaker felt he has been embarrassed by the Minority Leader’s conduct and wanted to respond by same measure by asking the Public Affairs Section to respond to the Minority Leader’s correspondence.
