A large contingent of foreign and local actors and actresses took over the precincts of Parliament on Tuesday with truckloads of production equipment and production vans.
Some Members of Parliament expressed serious concern about the security implications of such ‘take over.’
DAILY GUIDE understands that the production crew that produced ‘Beast of The Nation’ movie, featuring young enterprising Ghanaian actor, Abraham Attah, hired the State Banquet Hall and the large car park used for state funerals on the premises of Parliament for the shooting of a film entitled ‘Forgiving Earth.’
Unaware of the fact that the American production team had paid for the State Banquet Hall and its car park for the production of the movie, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Aowin in the Western Region, Mathias Kwame Ntow, raised the matter on the floor, saying that he was very upset to find out that the ‘Eastern’ gate to Parliament House which he usually uses had been closed because of the film production.
“Mr Speaker, today something unimaginable happened, when I was coming to parliament I realized that the gate I always use had been closed and had to turn round to use the ‘Western’ gate, creating a whole lot of inconvenience for me and other MPs who use the Eastern gate,” he said
According to the Aowin MP, he finally found out that the gate was closed because of a movie production, stressing that with the invasion of the ‘outsiders’ and ‘strangers’ on the premises of parliament, security of MPs and parliament as an institution could be compromised.
The Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, who supported the argument of the MP for Aowin, said that the security of MPs must been taken seriously.
The Minority Chief Whip, who is also the NDC MP for Asawase, could not fathom why the car park used for only state funerals are frequently hired for other funerals, bringing people from all walks of life to the premises of parliament who could pose a security threat to MPs and parliament as an institution.
“Mr Speaker, usually when there are funerals at the car park, you will see many people flooding to the Chamber and Job 600 looking for MPs to beg for money to create embarrassment for MPs.”
By Thomas Fosu Jnr