Members of Parliament last Friday compounded the problems of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, when they took her to the cleaners over the process of law-making.
The MP�s did not mince words when they took on the Attorney-General who has been struggling to find her feet since her appointment over 10 months ago, in a matter that has been described as a tortuous confrontational debate on passing of the Interpretation Bill.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu, who has lost several cases in court, strolled to Parliament in the hope of eliciting support from NDC MPs to push her quest to change the law-making process; but she left the House badly bruised, with frustration written all over her face. Instead of using the Constitution to state her case, she strangely relied on the English dictionary, which eventually cashed in her face.
The Interpretation Bill, which has since been passed by Parliament, would clearly lay down certain basic rules as to how the courts should interpret an Act of Parliament. Moving for the passage of the Bill on the floor of Parliament last Friday, Betty submitted that the President should take precedence over the legislature in law-making, arguing that, all Acts must be said to have been �Enacted by the President and Parliament�, a statement which incensed some MPs as they argued that legislative powers are vested in Parliament and that the President only assents to bills passed by the House.
The Attorney-General however suffered a crushing defeat, in the ensuring debate on the issue as the MPs, including the Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, a power broker in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), served her with a dose of legal argument, with some quipping that it was probably worthwhile to have a bit of court room experience as a lawyer in legal arguments, especially since she is the principal legal adviser to government.
Whilst MPs were using the 1992 Constitution and other legal documents to buttes their points, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu was obsessed with the use of the English dictionary for the definition of enactment to support her submission, pushing MP for Adansi Asokwa, K.T. Hammond, to go for a bigger dictionary in aid of the Attorney-General.
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