There was a rowdy session at the House of Representatives on Thursday when the Minority Caucus staged a walkout from the chamber in protest over the passage of the constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish state police.
The caucus accused the House leadership of violating constitutional provisions and the chamber’s Standing Orders.
The Minority Leader, Fredrick Agbedi, alongside other caucus leaders, while speaking to reporters, insisted that their action was not borne out of opposition to state police but against what they described as the abuse of parliamentary procedures.
According to Agbedi, the Speaker, while presiding as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, ignored clear constitutional requirements governing the alteration of the Constitution.
The Minority Leader stated that attendance in the House is determined through members’ registers signed on each legislative day and not by names read out during proceedings.
“The Constitution is the grand norm. It is the rule book from which even our Standing Orders derive their powers. For the Speaker, acting as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, to disregard the clear provisions of Section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, is a great affront to the workings of the House of Representatives,” he said.
According to the caucus, constitutional amendment bills must be considered clause by clause, with each provision supported by a two-thirds majority of members as stipulated in both the Constitution and the House Standing Orders.
Quoting Order 13 Rule 15(a) of the House Rules, the lawmakers said, “In the clause-by-clause consideration in the Committee of the Whole, a clause shall be deemed passed only if supported by a positive vote of two-thirds majority of members of the House.”
