Two Assembly Members Suspended Over Gross Misconduct

Two elected assembly members in the New Juaben Municipal Assembly, have been barred from attending two consecutive ordinary and committee meetings of the Assembly.

This serves as their punishment for gross misconduct and disrespect towards the Presiding Member (PM).

The sanction was recommended by the Public Relations and Complaints Committee (PRCC) of the Assembly, after the two, Mr Ishmael Kwame Afrani and Isaac Asante, appeared before the committee, for openly showing disrespect to the orders of the Presiding Member at a previous Assembly meetings.

Mr Samuel Boadi Sarpong, the PM who announced this on Wednesday at an Assembly meeting, mentioned that four Assembly members including Mr Isaac Amakye Dwomoh and Mr Edward Asante-Antwi, misbehaved on December 18, 2015 during the last ordinary meeting.

 They were subsequently referred to the PRCC for hearing, however the PM said Mr Amakye- Dwomoh, rendered an unqualified verbal apology before the committee and followed this up with a written copy, whiles Mr Asante-Antwi, was yet to make an appearance.

According to Mr Sarpong, following the apology rendered by Mr Amakye-Dwomoh, the PRCC recommended a pardon for him on condition that he apologized to the entire house.

“This, he readily obliged and was thus left off the hook, the PM added.

Mr Sarpong, explained that per the standing orders of the assembly Act, every member was bound to keep quiet when the Presiding member who is the leader of the House was speaking and said the action was to bring order and sanctity in the Assembly’s proceedings.

The Presiding Member, mentioned that the 1992 constitution created the office of the Presiding Member and all Assembly members were bound to respect that office irrespective of age, status and creed and cautioned that he would enforce that to the latter.

Meanwhile, the two members affected by the sanctions, have expressed disappointment at the way and manner of the Presiding member, ordered their suspension to the extent of asking security officers around to drag them out of the room.

They also told GNA in an interview that, they were ignorant of the charges levelled against them to warrant their suspension and that the recommendation to suspend them was baseless and had no legal backing.