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Mp’s Arrest: Law Garbled by Parliament – Legal Practitioner
The Minority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu including other lawmakers have gotten it wrong in explaining a provision in the constitution that suggests Members of Parliament (MPs) cannot be arrested on their way to or from parliament for any offence.
“Assuming I go to court or the police initiate criminal charges against him as MP for Suame, the law does not permit that police should inform the Speaker of Parliament of his arrest”, private legal practitioner, Kwame Adofo stated.
“I have listened to him and some MPs say police should consult the Speaker before they can arrest lawmakers. …where in the Constitution can that be found”, he quizzed.
“I will pardon him and his colleagues for contradicting themselves on this issue because may not have a legal background”.
“How is the police or any security agency going to perform it’s job by first giving the crooks or the bad guys notice we are coming after you”, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) member asked on a Kumasi based radio station.
“When you are reading an Act you need to think about the objective purpose of which it has been drafted. …if you say police should inform the Speaker first, by the time the Speaker is informed, will the person still be there for you to make an arrest?”
MPs from both majority and minority sides have expressed their displeasure of the police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) raiding the homes of two lawmakers who were ministers in the previous administration.
According to them, the right thing the state security should have done is to write the Parliament through the Speaker to inform them about their colleagues offences.
But Lawyer Kwame Adofo insists the operatives of police CID did no wrong storming the MPs homes by surprise.
Source: Kwabena Danso-Dapaah
