Lawyer Maurice Ampaw one of the astute Lawyer and human right advocate has unequivocally caution the head of the Legislative arm of government, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin to heed to the call by the Chief Justice or face the consequences afterwards.
The controversial decision made by the Speaker Alban Bagbin seems to have incurred the wrath of Lawyer Maurice Ampaw who is of the view that the Speaker be dragged to court and cite for contempt for championing a course against the Majority in Parliament.
“The Constitution wasn’t done by the Act of Parliament but all. In law, it’s not his area to interpret the law. He Acted unconstitutional and must be cited for contempt” Lawyer Ampaw spoke
Mr Bagbin said the Speaker was called upon by the Standing Orders of Parliament, particularly Order 18, to inform the House of the occurrence of a vacancy of the seat of a member under Clause (1) (b) to (e), (g) and (h) of Article 97 of the Constitution.
Per Alban Bagbin’s ruling; “Accordingly, I proceed to inform the House that by the notification of the polls the following Members of Parliament have by their actions vacated their seats in Parliament,” he stated.
Providing his understanding of Article 97 of the Constitution, Speaker Bagbin said at the core of the Minority side’s statement were the provisions of Article 97(1) of the Constitution of Ghana, 1992, which governed the circumstances under which a Member of Parliament shall vacate his/her seat in Parliament.
The Speaker stated that Article 97(1)(g) and (h) operated to prevent what the old school referred to as “cross carpeting” or “carpet crossing” as witnessed in the early Legislative Councils and Parliaments of the Gold Coast and the Republic of Ghana respectively.
“He Acted unconstitutional and must be cited for contempt for undermining the Judiciary. If you have the balls sit and tell the whole people of Ghana, the Chief Justice that you are not going to comply and you will see where power lies” Lawyer Maurice Ampaw lamented
On October 18, Honourable Afenyo-Markin filed for a stay of execution against the Speaker’s ruling at the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court subsequently granted this stay order, temporarily suspending any actions linked to the ruling, including the declaration of the four parliamentary seats as vacant.
It is believed that the Parliament is not sovereign since the sovereignty lies in the hands of the people and inasmuch as the constitution is supreme, the Speaker cannot go contrary against the orders of the land.
“If you have the balls sit down and tell the Chief Justice that you are not going to comply and you will see where power lies” Lawyer Ampaw told the Speaker on his programme.
Lawyer Ampaw opined that when the Supreme Court orders, the Executive must enforce and how much more of the Parliament who is merely supposed to make laws and not to interpret laws.
