Former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu (R) and Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin
Former Attorney General and Minister for Justice Martin Amidu has issued a strongly worded epistle criticising Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin over the ongoing deadlock in Parliament, with two recent adjournments of the House.
In his letter dated November 12, 2024, and copied to GhanaWeb, Amidu asserts that Speaker Bagbin is to blame for the deadlock regarding which political party constitutes the Majority Caucus, following Bagbin’s declaration of four seats as vacant.
Amidu contends that Bagbin’s refusal to adhere to the Supreme Court’s stay on his declaration, along with his subsequent criticism of the court and the court’s ruling reversing his decision, has intensified divisions within Parliament and across government branches—divisions he believes will take years to heal.
“The Speaker of Parliament did not have to wait for the judgment of the Supreme Court rendered on 12 November 2024, declaring both his conduct on 17 October 2024 in Parliament in interpreting the provisions of Article 97 (1) (g) and (h) of the 1992 Constitution and pronouncing the seats of four Members of Parliament (MPs) vacant as unconstitutional to obey orders directed at the Speaker of Parliament by the Court on 8 October 2024 and reaffirmed on 30 October 2024 staying the Speaker’s ruling or pronouncement of those four seats vacant.
“The Speaker’s continued intransigence in challenging, disobeying, and scurrilously abusing the Court through pronouncements in Parliament and media engagements with public funds escalated the conflict to such intractable and emotional intensity that the eventual resolution of the controversy by the Supreme Court on 12 November 2024 has left behind emotional and face-saving residues that will affect coordination and cooperation in Parliament between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for several years after the tenure of Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin as the Speaker of the eighth (8) Parliament of Ghana,” he wrote.
Amidu further criticised the Speaker, stating, “Speaker Bagbin has through his intransigence and bloated ego put a knife on the conventions that held the coordinating and cooperative relationship of the majority and minority in Parliament on the one hand, and the executive and the legislature on the other hand together, and things have fallen apart. Whatever the short-term objective that the Speaker and his supporters have achieved, it will take an exceedingly long time for the centre to hold again now and in future Parliaments unless greed gives way to the love of our homeland Ghana.”
He also took issue with Bagbin’s handling of an application by the MP for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu, which led to the declaration of the seats as vacant, suggesting it demonstrated a lack of maturity.
Amidu argued that Bagbin should have dismissed Haruna Iddrisu’s application, which he considers the root cause of the current conflict in the House.
“The crisis in Parliament was exacerbated by Speaker Bagbin’s failure to have exercised maturity and the experience he claims to have accumulated for an alleged 32 years in Parliament (when Parliament under the Constitution will be 32 years on 7 January 2025) to discern that the fire which was ignited in the Tamale South Constituency on 12 October 2024 and consummated in Parliament on 15 and 17 October 2024 was doomed to fail in the final run in the Courts.
“I made my opinion known on 13 October 2024 to an emissary of Haruna Iddrisu, the leader of the architects who orchestrated the burning of Parliament with a needless application for the vacation of the four seats before the motion was moved on 15 October 2024 in Parliament by the Minority Leader who adopted the conspiracy to set fire to the nation and the 1992 Constitution from an NDC political gathering of leading members in the Tamale South Constituency on 12 October 2024. When an elder allows himself to be led by the nose by a younger generation full of youthful exuberance, he suffers for his own folly by being pushed into excessive actions whilst his blood is on heat, and his reason has not assumed its seat.”
Amidu added that he is awaiting “to see how the Speaker is going to eat humble pie and initiate the process of reconvening Parliament” following the Supreme Court ruling declaring his action unconstitutional.
About the Supreme Court Ruling:
On Tuesday, Ghana’s Supreme Court overturned Speaker Alban Bagbin’s declaration of four seats as vacant.
The judgment followed an application by Effutu MP Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, who challenged the Speaker’s decision.
Through his lawyers, Afenyo-Markin, who remains Majority Leader, sought clarity on the constitutional basis for Bagbin’s decision. Article 97 of the Constitution states that “A Member of Parliament shall vacate his seat in Parliament – (g) if he leaves the party of which he was a member at the time of his election to Parliament to join another party or seeks to remain in Parliament as an independent member…. (h) if he was elected a Member of Parliament as an independent candidate and joins a political party.”
Afenyo-Markin’s request led the court to declare the Speaker’s interpretation of Article 97 (g) and (h) incorrect, reversing the Speaker’s declaration that seats held by Andrew Amoako Asiamah (Fomena), Cynthia Mamle Morrison (Agona West), Kwadwo Asante (Suhum), and Peter Yaw Kwakye-Ackah (Amenfi Central) were vacant.
The Chief Justice, delivering the court’s decision, confirmed that the application by the Majority Leader was upheld by a 5-2 majority.
Two justices opposed the application on grounds of jurisdiction.
The justices who supported the application were Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, Justice Mariam Owusu, Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu, Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu, and Justice Yaw Darko Asare.
Those who dissented were Justice Avril Lovelace Johnson and Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu.
Read Martin Amidu’s full epistle below:
BAI/OGB
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