The Minority Caucus in Parliament staged a walkout from the chamber, accusing First Deputy Speaker Bernard Ahiafor of exhibiting bias and frustrating efforts by opposition lawmakers to hold government ministers accountable.
The incident occurred today, July 15 during question time when Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin sought clarification from the Minister for Communications over the government’s planned nationwide re-registration of SIM cards.
Mr Afenyo-Markin initially questioned the minister on the policy and later attempted to ask a supplementary question regarding the procurement process and the financial implications of the exercise.
However, the First Deputy Speaker ruled the follow-up question out of order, insisting that it strayed beyond the scope of the original question.
The ruling immediately sparked protests from Minority MPs, who argued that the supplementary question was directly linked to the minister’s response and was therefore permissible under parliamentary rules.
In protest, members of the Minority rose from their seats and walked out of the chamber.
Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin accused the First Deputy Speaker of repeatedly using parliamentary procedures to silence opposition legislators and weaken Parliament’s oversight responsibility.
“We have observed that the First Deputy Speaker has a way of using the rules to stampede parliamentary oversight,” he stated.
According to him, the Deputy Speaker had consistently targeted Minority backbenchers whenever they sought to question government officials on matters of public interest.
“You’ve all observed that he started an attack on our backbenchers. Any time our backbenchers were on the floor, he would use the rules to frustrate them,” Afenyo-Markin alleged.
The Minority Leader argued that questions surrounding the cost and implementation of the SIM re-registration exercise were legitimate concerns for Ghanaians. GeographicReference
“This is a government policy seeking to start SIM registration afresh. They claim people use unverifiable identities. Our question is, at what cost? How many people were identified to have used stolen IDs?” he asked.
“Especially when the minister himself said it would be at no cost to subscribers. It is in the interest of the Ghanaian public to know how much it is costing the nation.”
Mr Afenyo-Markin further cited Standing Order 89(1) of Parliament, insisting that members are entitled to ask supplementary questions for purposes of clarification based on answers provided by ministers.
“The rules under 89.1 allow you to anchor your supplementary question on an answer given by the minister for the purpose of clarification,” he said.
“The rules are not meant to be used to intimidate, frustrate and bring Parliament to a standstill.”
He also said that some members on the Majority side, including the Majority Leader, disagreed with the Deputy Speaker’s ruling.
“As you observed, even his own side disagreed with him. The Majority Leader himself realised that what he was doing was wrong,” he asserted.
The Effutu MP stressed that the protest was not an impulsive reaction but the result of months of dissatisfaction with the conduct of the First Deputy Speaker during parliamentary proceedings.
“We’ve tolerated the First Deputy Speaker for quite some time,” he said.