Minority MPs to Be Hauled Before Privileges Committee for 'Bloody Widow' Placard?

By Julius Yao Petetsi

SOME Members of Parliament on the Minority side could be hauled before Parliament's Privileges Committee for displaying placards with the inscription "Bloody Widow" at the swearing-in of Lydia Seyram Alhassan in Parliament on Tuesday.

The First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu, yesterday directed the Clerk to Parliament to review the video of Tuesday's proceedings and establish the identity of the lawmakers who displayed the placard so they face the Privileges Committee which he chairs.

The directive followed the refusal of the Minority to apologise to the new MP for the language used to describe her; arguing that it would be difficult to identify those who displayed the placards.

The Minority MPs displayed placards moments before storming out of the House when the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu, was about swearing-in Madam Lydia Seyram Alhassan, the wife of the late MP for the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency.

The First Deputy Speaker, following an application by Deputy Majority Whip, Matthew Nyindan, for the Minority Leadership to apologise to the new MP, impressed on the Minority to apologise but they would not.

On a point of order, Mr Nyindan, Kpandai MP, said: "Mr Speaker, I think this is an attack, not just on our colleague Member of Parliament but an attack on women in general.

"It is an attack, Mr Speaker, on the widows we have in this country" adding that it was unfortunate "for you [Minority] to come to this House and put up those placards to denigrate this House."

If this was allowed to pass without it being checked, Mr Nyindan said "it would set a very bad precedent in the House" as he invited his colleagues to apologise.

But the Deputy Minority Leader, James KlutseAvedzi disagreed.

The Ketu North lawmaker said there was no provision in the Standing Orders which bars the use of placards in the House and that what the Orders abhors is the use of abusive, offensive and insulting words on any member.

"Mr Speaker, yesterday [Tuesday], I did not hear any member from our side who made a speech which content is offensive, abusive, insulting and the rest," he stated.

In any case, he said, at the time the Minority MPs displayed the inscription, Madam Lydia Alhassan was not a Member of Parliament as she was not sworn in and could not be accorded Parliamentary privileges, adding that the leadership would find it difficult to identify which members displayed the placards.

The First Deputy Speaker, in his ruling impressed on the Minority Caucus to apologise to the new MP; a ruling which ruffled the feathers of the Minority.

Amidst the tension, Tamale North MP, Alhassan Suhuyini, was identified by the Speaker as one of the Minority Members who expressed their disagreements with the ruling by 'shouting' at the Speaker and ordered him out of the House.

The Minority, a day after the by-election which elected Madam Lydia Alhassan, served notice that it would not accept the outcome of the polls which was characterised with violence.

It said the violence which led to the injury of at least 18 people, believed to be sympathisers of the opposition National Democratic Congress, was a "blot on the conscience of our democratic evolution" and could not produce a Member of Parliament "unless that member wants to become a product of violence."

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