Some of the demonstrators
Residents of the Sefwi Wiawso Constituency in the Western North Region yesterday demonstrated against the ‘mistreatment’ of their Member of Parliament (MP), Dr Kwaku Afriyie, in the House.
It would be recalled that the Speaker Alban Bagbin expelled Dr. Afriyie from the chamber for questioning his authority in speaking on President Akufo-Addo’s nomination of two Supreme Court candidates.
The Sefwi Wiawso MP had said it did not lie in the authority of the Speaker to make pronouncements on the Supreme Court nominees who were about to be vetted by the Appointments Committee of Parliament, describing the remarks as “prejudicial.”
But the Speaker Bagbin became angry at the MP’s remarks and ordered the Marshal to walk the MP out.
However, residents of Sefwi Wiawso who were not enthused about how their MP and former minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, was treated took to the streets to register their displeasure.
They demanded an unqualified apology from the speaker.
“What the Speaker did was not an insult only to our MP but our chiefs too and therefore we want the Speaker to apologise to the Sefwi Wiawso residents within seven days”.
One of the residents, Ata Marfo, pointed out that the attitude of the Speaker does not augur well for the country’s democracy.
Another resident, Adu Agyei, asserted, “If another MP can describe the speaker as a tyrant and nothing was done or said to him, then what did Dr. Afriyie do to warrant such humiliation from the speaker? he quizzed.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi