The Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea, has argued that the letter from the Presidency to Parliament on the anti-gay bill does not constitute a violation of the Constitution.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, suspended the approval of ministers and deputy ministers of state nominated by President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday.
This move by the Speaker came after a directive from the Presidency, which issued a cease-and-desist letter to Parliament, restraining the House from transmitting the bill on Human Sexual Rights and Family Values for President Akufo-Addo’s assent.
The decision has faced criticism from the Majority Caucus in the House.
Samuel Atta Akyea, in an interview monitored by ofofororadioonline with Citi News, said the tit-for-tat attitude by the Minority must stop.
“I will not say that there is a pattern from the president’s end to, sort of, frustrate the processes of assenting to bills. Even if he does that, you can bring it to his attention. We should not say, and I am not saying, that is the state of affairs.”
“If the president is doing something which is unconstitutional, there are processes to bring the president to order. But to lower the standards of governance to say, oh, let’s do a tit-for-tat, let’s ensure that we frustrate his work because we sent some bills to him, and he doesn’t want to assent to those bills, I don’t believe that is the way to go.”
The Speaker of Parliament explained that, his action stems from an interlocutory injunction filed at the Supreme Court by MP for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Etse K. Dafeamekpor, rendering Parliament unable to sanction new ministers nominated by President Akufo-Addo.
Credit:Citinewsroom