Task force to ensure safety in Parliament

Page 10, Jan 30, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo, has tasked the leadership of Parliament to constitute a three-member fact-finding committee to establish circumstances leading to the tampering of the seat of the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.
The committee is also to make recommendations for measures to be put in place to ensure the safety of Members of Parliament (MPs) at the premises of Parliament.
The directive followed a statement made by Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu on the need to strengthen security in Parliament.
In the statement he asserted that on January 7, he complained openly about the uncomfortable nature of his seat which drew the attention of the Estate Officer.
He said when the office called for the replacement of the seat, it came to light that the seat he had been sitting on in the chamber had been tampered with, with the holding system being replaced with some rather crude lead fabrication.
The Minority Leader stated that out of the 230 seats in the chamber, it was only his seat that had been ‘refitted’ but the estate officer insisted that it was not his department that did that job.
The Minority Leader said as if that was not enough, on Friday January 16, it was also discovered that the seat in his office had also been tampered with in the same manner as the one in the Chamber.
He said enquiries from the manufacturers of the chair established the perpetrators had taken not less than three days for the refitting of the chair.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu questioned the intention of the person or persons who did that and asked “How did the person or persons who effected or caused the tampering to be effected gain access to the Chamber and my office?”
Contributing to the statement, the Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, said the issue bordered on security and suggested that a fact-finding committee should be established to get to the bottom of the matter.
“This matter should not be taken lightly since it borders on the security of all of us, he stated”.
For his part, the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, also supported calls for a committee to be established to go into the matter, adding that the seat of one of the MPs on the Majority side had been smeared with oil one morning when the MPs got to the Chamber.
Meanwhile, the MP for Assin North, Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, has been sworn in by the Speaker to enable him take up his seat in the House.
Mr Agyapong was said to have travelled out of the country on January 7, 2009 when the MPs were sworn in after the inauguration of the Fifth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.