Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress
General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Asiedu Nketia has said he was enjoying himself while the majority were shouting “Asiedu Nketia must leave” in the chamber of parliament Friday evening.
According to Asiedu Nketia, who said no one sitting in the public gallery can be asked to leave the chamber unless the house wants to have a closed-door sitting, he was at peace while the majority displayed their ignorance.
“If you are sitting on the public gallery, no law can push you out of the public gallery except parliament decides that there are going to engage in close sitting, so what prevents Asiedu Nketia from following if I decide to come and sit there. The second condition upon which anybody can be walked out of parliament from the press or public gallery is that the person is misconducting himself in an unparliamentary manner that may compromise the work of parliament.
“I was sitting there even as they were shouting and pointing at me I was at peace I never responded because I was enjoying what they were doing, so if they do it and have walked away, they have walked away,” he explained.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, on Friday, November 26, 2021, directed ministers who were not MPs to leave the lobby as they were about to vote on Ken Ofori-Atta’s request to engage the leadership of the house before the house votes on the 2022 budget.
The majority, after the ministers had left, demanded for the NDC scribe, who was at the public gallery, to also leave the chamber but that didn’t happen.
Reacting to this, however, Asiedu Nketia noted that he was at the public gallery and not on the floor of parliament, so the Majority’s demand for him to leave was unfounded.