The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has rescinded his decision to suspend 4 Members of Parliament (MPs).
The MPs are; Frank Annor Dompreh, Rockson Dafeamekpor, Hassan Tampuli, and Jerry Ahmed Shaib.
The four were suspended for their role in the chaotic scenes witnessed on the evening of Thursday, January 30 during proceedings of the Appointments Committee.
They were captured on camera pushing and shoving each other as well as pulling and dragging tables, leading to the destruction of microphones used by the Committee.
The chaos resulted from disagreement among members of the Minority and Majority sides of the Appointments Committee. While members of the Minority felt that they had had a long day, thus could not continue vetting nominees after 10:00pm, the Majority members said the exercise could proceed without them.
Amid shouting on top of their voices, the Minority members disrupted proceedings by placing the chairs on the tables. This was followed by overturning the tables which resulted in the damages caused.
It took the intervention of the Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga to calm tempers.
Speaker Bagbin’s rescission of the suspension which took place on February 4, was preceded by pleas from both the Majority and Minority Leaders, Mahama Ayariga and Alexander Afenyo-Markin respectively.
Mr Afenyo-Markin pleaded for the suspended members to be reinstated because despite their shortcoming, they have as members of the Appointments Committee contributed to the record vetting of 42 ministerial nominees in less than a month.
“We have cooperated with the Majority members to vet the President’s in record time. We plead with you to rescind your decision,” he said.
On his part, Mr Ayariga cited the oft quoted plea for forgiveness, except that he replaced a word with ‘Speaker’, “To err is human, to forgive is Speaker,” he pleaded.
Before granting their request, Mr Bagbin said, “As a father, when your son commits an offence, you don’t punish your son to the extent of breaking his leg” Bagbin said.
” I will proceed to lift the suspension of the four Members of Parliament. The MPs who were affected can now return to the chamber or join sittings…to whom much is given, much is expected,” he added.
He advised them to resort to dialogue in resolving conflict instead of violence.
Meanwhile, the Speaker has indicated that, “The Investigation Committee will continue its work.”
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