ACCRA:
Chaos exploded in Ghana’s Parliament this week, where legislators faced violently, destroying furniture and participating in physical altercations. The altercation occurred during a session to examine the new ministerial appointments on Thursday, after which four parliamentarians were suspended.
The video of the incident was widely shared in the social networks that showed the parliamentarians pushing and pushing each other and damaging tables and microphones. The police were called to the meeting to pacify the situation.
Chaos explodes in the Parliament of Ghana on the investigation of health research and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the designated, minorities demand continuation tomorrow.pic.twitter.com/4ybh7kh2ls
– The African wave (@theafrican_wave) January 30, 2025
According to the media reports, the Income Committee met to examine three legislators of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who were nominated for ministerial positions after the party triumphed over the new Patriotic Party (NPP) in December elections.
The Committee did not agree on a series of matters, with some legislators accusing Alexander Agenyo-Markin, the PNP leader in Parliament, to unnecessarily drag the process to resolve political scores.
According to a report by BBCThe Committee took more than five hours to examine only a communications minister nominated for the designated Samuel Nartey George.
Many NDC parliamentarians alleged that it was a form of political remuneration of opposition parliamentarians in the committee, who according to the reports wanted George to retract his previous criticisms of the former president and leader of the PNP, Nana Akufo-Addo, and his vice president , Mahamadu Bawumia.
The verbal disagreement soon became physical, with the members of the investigation committee that end up, shouting, push each other and rent tables.
As a result, four legislators, three of the NPP and one of the ruling part, were suspended by the speaker of Parliament for two weeks.
Later, AFENEY-MARKIN of the NPP said that the members of the Parliamentary Customs Committee “the opportunity to deeply investigate each candidate of the president, without limit to the questions,” according to the BBC report. He also accused the NDC of trying to “frustrate” this process.