The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has described the attempt by the police to arrest the Member of Parliament for Madina, Francis- Xavier Sosu during a demonstration as obstruction of his duties as an MP.
According to him, the police had no right to arrest the Member of Parliament as he was about to address his constituents during the demonstration and had gone through due process.
Speaking at the Speaker’s Breakfast Forum in Kumasi, he stated that, in order to reduce the tension, he would engage other stakeholders to come up with legislation that would guide how similar issues would be handled in the future.
“There is an increase in public discourse in recent times about the privileges and immunities of MPs, officers of Parliament, and Parliament itself. It is not new. Since I became an MP, it has been coming up a number of times, and even now, some of these things come to my desk, and we have processed a number of them well. We are all aware that a number of MPs are before the court, and they are being prosecuted. So, there is nobody saying, MPs or Parliament are above the law.”
“But this particular instance before us involving the MP for Madina, I can put my neck on it, that you have no such powers after he had gone through all the processes with you, and then you send your contingent to arrest him while he was talking to his people. That is obstruction and how can that be said that the speaker is preventing the MP to be arrested. That can not be tolerated”, he added.
Background
Mr. Sosu led a demonstration in which the police contend included some unlawful acts, hence the attempt to arrest the MP.
Mr. Sosu has said police even manhandled him on the day of the protest.
This led to him filing a complaint in Parliament against two police officers.
There were also police officers present at a church service to arrest the MP, although the police have denied that there was an attempt to arrest him at the church.
The Speaker of Parliament further refused a Police request to release the Madina MP for interrogation.
This compelled the police to secure a criminal summons for Mr. Sosu. The MP, however, missed the court date because he was out of the country, and the case has been adjourned to November 16, 2021.
