8th Parliament: Alban Bagbin sends strong warning to MPs who want to be ministers

- Legislators of the 8th Parliament have been warned against taking ministerial roles

- Speaker of Parliament has warned such moves will make Parliament ineffective

- So far, NPP caucus plus the independent candidate are majority of the House

Speaker of the 8th Parliament of Ghana, Alban Bagbin, has warned law makers against taking additional roles as ministers of state.

Addressing the House for the first session in Parliament, the Speaker explained that taking additional roles as minister does not only flout standing orders of Parliament but also leaves law makers ineffective in serving their constituents.

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Quoting sections of the Bible (Mathew 6:24), Alban Bagbin argued that taking both roles will leave them “devoted to one and despise the other.”

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He made it clear that having double roles will only end up making Parliament less effective.

The Speaker’s warning comes in the wake of over 100 law makers losing their seats in the just ended elections of 2020. Out of this number, a majority of these legislators held double roles as ministers of state and heads of some public institutions.

With the NPP and NDC both having 137 seats in Parliament - with one independent candidate supporting the NPP, the stakes remain so high for both sides of house.

NPP Caucus plus independent candidate declared Majority

The New Patriotic Party caucus in parliament together with the independent MP of Fomena has been declared together as the majority group in the 8th Parliament of Ghana.

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This declaration was made during the first sitting of the house on January 15, 2020, to determine which group is the majority among other businesses.

The NPP caucus had 137 members whilst the National Democratic Congress (NDC) caucus also had 137 members with the independent Fomena MP holding the trump-card to which side becomes the majority.

According to the Rt Honourable Speaker, the Fomena MP, Hon Andrew Amoako Asiamah in a letter dated January 13, 2020, confirmed he would do business with the NPP.

This brought the NPP group's number to 138 as against 137 from the NDC, on which basis, the speaker declared the NPP caucus as the majority group in parliament.

READ ALSO: Fomena MP officially joins NPP caucus in Parliament

The announcement was met with great cheers among the NPP MPs who had reported to the house very early in the day to occupy the majority seats.

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As YEN.com.gh earlier reported, Members of Parliament who are part of the New Patriotic Party Caucus arrived in parliament at 4:00 am in the morning for a sitting that was supposed to commence at 10 am

The NPP MPs were there early to occupy the majority seats with the mindset of outsmarting the NDC MPs when they willfully relaxed at home.

When Ghanaians woke up to realize the news, they took to Twitter as was expected, to rain heavy trolls on the NPP MPs for getting outsmarted by the NDC MPs.

Watch: John Mahama's response to the 2020 election results

Source: YEN.com.gh