The Legal Department of Parliament has been served a true copy of the Supreme Court order freezing Speaker, Alban Bagbin’s decision to throw out four MPs out of the House.
A bailiff from the Supreme Court was at Parliament House in the afternoon of Monday, October 22 to serve the ruling on the House.
On Thursday, October 17, Speaker Bagbin declared the seats of the 4 MPs vacant after three of them – 2 from the NPP and 1 from NDc – filed to contest the December parliamentary elections as independent candidates, while one independent candidate also filed to contest on the ticket of the NPP.
The affected MP are Cynthia Morrison (Agona West), Kojo Asante (Suhum), Andrew Asiamah (Fomena), and Peter Kwakye Ackah (Amenfi Central).
Following the Speaker’s directive, the Majority leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin went to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision, with the court staying the directives.
Service
Commenting on the development, Afenyo-Markin said, “The bailiff of the Supreme Court has just informed me that the process, that is the ruling of the court, has been successfully served on Parliament through the Director of Legal. So we thank God that Parliament has at long last subjected itself to court processes and has taken service so we look forward to Parliament respecting the orders and the directions of the Supreme Court. So that is the good news this afternoon.“
No controversy
He said once Parliament has received the service, there is no controversy. “The court ruled that its orders be served on Parliament and upon being served , Parliament should file its defence within seven days.
“Parliament so far has demonstrated that it is law abiding from its conduct this afternoon compared to last week when the same Director of Legal was not ready to receive service . Now he has willingly received service, they didn’t have to throw it at him, they didn’t even have to throw it on his table. He has received it, signed for it and that is the beauty of democracy,“ he added.
