E-Levy brawl: Marshals department to beef up security – Majority Leader

The Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs has strongly stated that the Marshals Department of Parliament, the department for maintaining law and order in the Legislature, in the coming few days will beef up security to ensure the safety of parliament and parliamentarians.

According to Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, there have been a series of meetings with the leadership of the Ghana Police Service to assist the Marshals Department to maintain law and order on the floor of parliament.

Although the police says it does not have jurisdiction over the security of Parliament Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu believes it is important to seek assistance from the law enforcement agency to avert the situation of some Members of Parliament from one political divide taking over the speaker’s chair.

The Majority Leader said this in an interview with Iddrissu Awudu, host of the Ghana Yensom morning show on Accra 100.5 FM on Friday, December 24, 2021.

“There is the need for the security of parliament to be beefed up to help avert some of these despicable events from happening on the floor,” he said.

He noted that what happened on the floor of parliament on Monday, December 20, 2021, leading to a free-for-all fight during deliberations over the e-levy could have been averted if security in the house was properly taken care of.

He further alleged there are reports on the floor that some two MPs from the Minority Caucus came to the floor with pistols.

He said leadership is investigating the matter to further ascertain the veracity of the alleged acts on the part of the two NDC MPs.

According to him, the situation that led to a member of the Minority Caucus splashing the face of the Minister for Youth and Sports and MP for Yagaba-Kubori Constituency, Mustapha Ussif with a sharp object which is believed to be a razor could have been averted, if security were properly beefed up.

He was of the view that the situation of some MPs fighting on the floor was shameful, adding that he does not understand why the NDC MPs are quick to resort to fighting on the floor.

He said the NDC must be told that the floor of Parliament is not an avenue for people to unleash their pugilist tactics.

“The floor of parliament is not for fisticuffs and the MPs on the NDC side must be made to know that,” he stressed.