Your failure to release Xavier-Sosu for Police probe ‘troubling’ – Majority to Speaker

The Majority Caucus in Parliament has called on the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to stop changing the rules to protect Madina MP, Francis Xavier-Sosu, from the police.

In a statement, the majority stated that failure of the Speaker to release the embattled lawmaker to police for investigation like his predecessors did is troubling.

The statement said: “The Majority Leadership views the foregoing response by Speaker Bagbin as a troubling departure from how his predecessors handled such requests. To avoid doubt, when both Rt. Hons. Joyce Bamford Addo and Edward Doe Adjaho received those requests during their days in office, they responded by inviting the relevant MPs, held discussions with them, and then asked them to report the requesting Police or investigative authorities.

“Again, during his tenure as Speaker, Rt Hon Professor Mike Oquaye modified the arrangement, including making the Speaker’s Conference Room available to the Police to meet with MPs they were interested in and to conduct initial investigations. He did this to protect the dignity of MPs while at the same time ensuring that MPs are not put above the law.

“Now the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Rt. Hon Bagbin, appears to be instituting new rules that seem to undermine the Rule of Law without any prior discussions with the Leadership of the House. We ask: What exactly has changed?  As a group, the Majority believes firmly that constitutionally guaranteed immunity for MPs in our democracy must not only be protected always but jealously guarded as well. However, never should we, as a Parliament, make the mistake of allowing immunity to be construed to mean impunity.”

The speaker has refused to release Xavier-Owusu to the police for investigation after the MP led his constituents to demonstrate over poor roads in his constituency.

The demonstration turned chaotic when the constituents blocked som roads and destroyed public property.

The Police after several failed attempts to arrest the MP have obtained a court summons and charged the MP with obstructing the highway and causing damage to public property.

The Speaker in a letter told the Police that to arrest a sitting MP, the appropriate procedure is to secure from the Speaker, a certificate that the MP in question is not attending to Parliamentary business.

He noted that anything short of this will not be entertained by Parliament.

Mr Bagbin stated that the immunities and privileges of MPs are not absolute but the procedure for causing the arrest of a sitting MP must be in accordance with the constitution.