General News of Monday, 1 November 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-11-01Sosu's attempted arrest: Ghana police are just lawless – Minority fume
A.B.A Fuseini, Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu
• Read Article 117, 118 to know MPs privileges, Minority tells Police
• Francis-Xavier Sosu has resisted arrest for the second time
• The police wants MP to answer questions over an unlawful protest
Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu and the Ranking Member of Communication committee,
Read full articleAlhassan Bashir Fuseini, has said Ghana Police has exhibited an act of lawlessness for attempting to arrest Madina MP after Speaker’s directive.
According to him, so long as the Speaker of Parliament has referred the matter to the privileges committee, the Ghana police could only take action after parliament had completed findings and recommendations.
“...the police are being lawless in this matter because there is a tendency of the matter before parliament and the privileges committee has commenced work on the matter and not until they have come up with their findings and recommendation, you go ahead to go and cause the same thing that brought about the matter in the first place. That's lawlessness. It’s like a suit is pending in the court of law and then you go on and make a pronouncement and proceed to act on the basis of what you think is right, you don't do that.”
Speaking to GhanaWeb in an interview, he said that articles 117 and 118 are clear on the privileges of Members of Parliament and the police ought to know the right step to take if they want to effect an arrest.
"What laws justify their action, when they went to the church did they show a warrant, is that how they operate the law. You just get up and dispatch some officers and say go and catch this man. Is that how the police work in a democratic state in Ghana? They should give us a break. This is lawlessness. Nobody is saying MPs are above the law, there are procedures. Read articles 117 and 118. It is very clear, so you don't do that. "
“Isn’t it so disgraceful you go to arrest an MP at a church, they are enacting the same rules that happened previously with Tsatsu Tsikata. It's a very diabolical intent that they have. We will not allow ourselves to be cowed into submission. If the police want things to escalate, they should do such illegalities and such lawless act we will not take it," he added.
Mr Fuseini mentioned that the Ghana Police will bear the consequences of their actions in parliament.
“I can tell you that Mr. Speaker and parliament will not take it lightly. They will hold all those officers who went there to engage in that clash out of illegality before the house. They will answer for this lawlessness as this will not be tolerated," he told GhanaWeb.
The MP for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu, lodged an official complaint to Parliament on October 26, 2021, against the Accra regional police operations commander, Isaac Kojo Asante, for attempting to arrest him in the line of duty.
The Lawmaker is said to have embarked on an unlawful protest after he led the youth to demonstrate against bad roads in his constituency.
