There was confusion in parliament on Thursday, 23 November 2017 as the Minority members of the house stomped their feet to protest what they say is a show of disrespect by Speaker, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye against their leaders.


Due to the ruckus, the Speaker suspended proceedings to have an in-camera meeting with the leadership of both sides of the house.

Class news’ parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, reports that the confusion began when the First Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, stood up on his feet to draw the Speaker’s attention to something but was ignored.

The Speaker called for the continuation of the budget debate and encouraged the MP for Elembelle Mr Kofi Buah who was already on his feet to continue talking.

Mr Buah, however, drew the Speaker’s attention that in parliamentary procedures if leaders are on their feet, they are supposed to be given prominence than any other person, so, he could not continue with the debate while his leader was on his feet.

Prof Oquaye, however, insisted Mr Buah continues with the debate. This prompted the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak to also stand on his feet in support of Mr Ibrahim but the Speaker again ignored them. This led to some sort of confusion as the unhappy minority MPs stomped their feet to protest the Speaker’s disrespect for their leaders, especially when they had been on their feet for more than five minutes.

Prof Oquaye noticing the confusion on the floor suspended proceedings to meet with the leaders of the house in private.

Source: ClassFMonline.com