The Majority Leader of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has demanded that the Minority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, withdraw a comment he made about the Chief Justice nominee, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, and also apologise to him.
The Minority Leader, in preliminary comments he made prior to the vetting of the Chief Justice nominee by the Appointments Committee on Monday, November 10, 2025, referred to Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie as a “disputed nominee.”
But the Majority Leader in a quick interaction objected to the comments and asked that the Chairman make him withdraw the comments and apologise to Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie, who is also the Acting Chief Justice, citing a provision in the Orders of Parliament.
According to Ayariga: “Rule 123 (3) where in the opinion of the Speaker, the words of a member used in a speech are offensive, abusive, insulting, blasphemous, or unbecoming imputes improper motives or impugns the integrity of a member or any other person, the Speaker may order that the member withdraws those words, or withdraw and apologise.”
Ayariga further referred Afenyo-Markin to an earlier description by the Chairman of the Committee of the nominee as Chief Justice, where the Minority drew his attention to refer to him appropriately, justifying his call for the comments to be withdrawn and an apology rendered.
“Mr. Speaker [Chairman] when we came to this Committee room and we started, you referred to the Chief Justice nominee as Chief Justice. When you referred to the nominee as Chief Justice, the Minority objected to the reference to the nominee as Chief Justice, and said that he is not a Chief justice, he is a nominee for Chief Justice and you must refer to him appropriately or Acting Chief Justice because he is also an Acting Chief Justice and an Acting Chief Justice is a Chief Justice.”
The Majority Leader, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, questioned whether the Minority Leader is challenging Baffoe-Bonnie’s nomination in court.
He explained that in as much as there are some issues in court, none of them pertains to the Acting CJ’s nomination, and he cannot therefore refer to him as a “disputed nominee.”
“Now, he has referred to the nominee as a disputed nominee. Are you in court disputing his nomination? You’re not in court disputing his nomination. So to the extent that you’re not in court challenging his nomination, there is no dispute about his nomination. If there is a dispute, there is a dispute about some other action.
“You have no right to look him in the face here before this committee and refer to him as a disputed nominee and expect me to sit here and not respond. So Mr. Chairman, pursuant to our own rules, he has to withdraw and apologise to him for referring to him as a disputed nominee,” he insisted.
Appointments Committee vets acting Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie today, Monday, Nov. 10
