Former Aspiring CPP General Secretary, James Kwabena Bomfeh, has urged the Member of Parliament(MP) for Madina constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu to avail himself for Police interrogation over his involvement in a violent protest within the constituency.
The Madina MP joined a group of people to demonstrate at Madina on Monday, October 25, 2021 and, in the process, the protesters blocked roads at the vicinity impeding vehicular and human movements.
He is also reported to have angrily driven his vehicle through some civilians and two Police officers nearly injuring them as he sped off from the scene of the protest.
He has since been invited for interrogation but has turned down the Police invite.
As a result, the Police made a request to the Speaker of Parliament for Hon. Francis-Xavier Sosu to honour their invite but the Speaker has refused to release him on grounds of Articles 117 and 118 of the 1992 constitution.
The Speaker of Parliament, in a letter signed by the Deputy Director of Legal Services of Parliament, said; “I am directed by the Rt. Hon. Speaker to inform you that proceedings of the 3rd Meeting of the 1st Session of the 8th Parliament commenced on Tuesday 26th October 2021, and having regard to the limitations of articles 117 and 118 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic, he is unable to release the Member of Parliament as requested in your letter.”
James Kwabena Bomfeh, popurlarly called 'Kabila', condemned the MP's behaviour as well as the Speaker's refusal to direct him to the Police.
According to him, inasmuch as he recognizes Parliament's immunity, he believes the right thing is for the MP to respect the Police by assisting in the investigations.
He emphasized that the MP shouldn't think that he is immune to arrest.
"That honourable Member of Parliament can be arrested by the Police, investigated and if the Police feels to prosecute him, if they are convinced; they will go to the Attorney General for the right to prosecution," he said during Peace FM morning show 'Kokrokoo'.
He subtly advised the MP to exhibit the right leadership to his constituents.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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In any future review of the 1992 Ghana Constitution both Articles 117 and 118 should be abolished entirely. In a way it tantamount to ‘legalising MPs disregard for the law’. Can one imagine a tro tro driver being invited by the police for interrogation about a road traffic offence, and the owner of the vehicle saying, ‘Sorry I can’t let him come to the police station because there are people waiting for him to take them to the market’? In my humble opinion a tro tro driver’s work is as important (if not more) as an MP’s. We mustn’t have one law for the privileged and one law for the ordinary folk. Also the Article that confers ‘honourable’ on MPs SHOULD be removed. They could address each other ‘honourable’ in the House, but this title should be left inside the gates is Parliament.