Chaos at vetting of Chief Justice nominee: Speaker of Parliament apologises to the Judiciary

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has apologised to the judiciary and its members for the heated exchanges and what he described as lack of decorum that characterised the vetting of the chief Justice nominee, Justice Paul Baffoe Bonnie on Monday, November 10.

He has directed the leadership of the Appointments Committee to take notice of the vetting incident and ensure the highest standards of civility during future proceedings.

Mr Bagbin assured that Parliament would continue to respect its relations with other arms of government.

“The judiciary is independent of control or direction from any person or authority. The doctrine of separation of powers requires that all three arms of government, the executive, legislature and judiciary, relate to one another with mutual respect and restraint,” he noted.

It would be recalled that an altercation ensued between the Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga and Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin during the vetting of Justice Baffoe Bonnie.
This is the statement made by Mr Afenyo-Markin that engendered the controversy.
“We gather to vet a disputed nominee for Office of Chief Justice of Ghana.This should be a moment of national pride and institutional renewal,” Mr Afenyo-Markin said.
This did not go down well with Mr Ayariga who interjected by saying, “The ranking member has no right, no lawful authority to raise anything about what happened in court, the processes leading to a removal of anybody and the nomination of anybody you have no right pursuant to our rules to raise those issues. So be guided because if you raise them, I’m going to object.”
This resulted in a long-drawn exchanges between the Minority Leader and the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Bernard Ahiafor. After nearly two hours of the stalemate, the committee proceeded on a break.
Upon resumption of proceedings, Mr Afenyo-Markin announced the decision of the Minority to reject the nominee and walked out of the session with his colleagues.
The vetting was attended by the topmost hierarchy of the Judiciary, including all members of the Supreme Court.
In a separate issue, the Majority Leader has accused the Minority Leader of breaching rules governing parliamentary privilege. He claims Alexander Afenyo-Makin attended an ECOWAS Parliament meeting against an earlier resolution by the House which removed his name from Ghana’s delegation.
Mr Ayariga appealed to the Speaker to refer Afenyo-Markin to the Privileges Committee for possible sanctions.

“By defying this Parliament’s resolution
removing him from the delegation to the ECOWAS Parliament and actually going to Port Harcourt
and attending the session, Mr Speaker, he has clearly, clearly
affronted the dignity and engaged in an act that constitutes an affront to the authority
of this Parliament,” he said.
“Pursuant to the appropriate orders i urge you to refer the Honourable Afenyo-MakinAlexander Kwamena to the privileges committee for him to be processed, that the appropriate sanctions be executed in relation to the Honourable Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Makin,” Ayariga stressed.

The Speaker has indicated that he would look into the matter and deliver a ruling on Wednesday, November 13.