Former Attorney General and Minister for Justice has issued a strongly worded epistle criticising Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin over the ongoing deadlock in Parliament, with two recent adjournments of the House.
In his letter dated November 12, 2024, and copied to GhanaWeb, Amidu asserts that Speaker Bagbin is to blame for the deadlock regarding which political party constitutes the Majority Caucus, following Bagbin's declaration of four seats as vacant.
Amidu contends that Bagbin's refusal to adhere to the Supreme Court's stay on his declaration, along with his subsequent criticism of the court and the court's ruling reversing his decision, has intensified divisions within Parliament and across government branches-divisions he believes will take years to heal. "The Speaker of Parliament did not have to wait for the judgment of the Supreme Court rendered on 12 November 2024, declaring both his conduct on 17 October 2024 in Parliament in interpreting the provisions of Article 97 (1) (g) and (h) of the 1992 Constitution and pronouncing the seats of four Members of Parliament (MPs) vacant as unconstitutional to obey orders directed at the Speaker of Parliament by the Court on 8 October 2024 and reaffirmed on 30 October 2024 staying the Speaker's ruling or pronouncement of those four seats vacant. "The Speaker's continued intransigence in challenging, disobeying, and scurrilously abusing the Court through pronouncements in Parliament and media engagements with public funds escalated the conflict to such intractable and emotional intensity that the eventual resolution of the controversy by the Supreme Court on 12 November 2024 has left behind emotional and face-saving residues that will affect coordination and cooperation in Parliament between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for several years after the tenure of Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin as the Speaker of the eighth (8) Parliament of Ghana," he wrote.
Amidu further criticised the Speaker, stating, "Speaker Bagbin has through his intransigence and bloated ego put a knife on the conventions that held the coordinating and cooperative relationship of the majority and minority in Parliament on the one hand, and the executive and the legislature on the other hand together, and things have fallen apart.