Minority Chief whip and Member of Parliament for Asawase, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, has hinted at plans to have the second deputy speaker, Andrew Asiamah removed once the house resumes sittings on January 25, 2022.
The Member of Parliament for Asawase Constituency explains that the second deputy speaker who is also the MP for Fomena constituency has not been ‘independent’ in the discharge of his duties in the current 8th parliament.
He alleged that the Fomena MP has joined the New Patriotic Party MPs in conducting the business of the house – a situation Muntaka Mubarak avers is not in tandem with provisions in the 1992 constitution.
“If you look at the 1992 constitution, Article 96(b)…Article 96 talks about two deputy speakers and the ‘b’ say that the two of them should not come from the same party…when we were electing him…we even nominated him [Andrew Asiamah] as the Second Deputy Speaker, we knew that he was independent so, after that he [Andrew Asiamah] wrote that he wanted to do business with the other side. Now you look at his relationship with them [and] it has gone beyond just doing business with them,” Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka explained.
“He attends their caucus meetings…he attends all their meetings…all their engagements, he does this with them….even when they were walking out of the chamber, he walked out with them even as [a] Second Deputy Speaker and we are very concerned because there’s a reason why the framers of our constitution put it so that the two Deputy Speakers should not come from the same party.
“So, if he chooses to do anything with them that is just going beyond just doing business with them, he has simply joined them and if he joins them then obviously he has to relinquish his Second Deputy Speaker position. He cannot keep that position and be working and doing everything with them just like any other NPP MP,” he added.
Source: Ashantibiz
