J H Mensah and speaker clash in parliament

accra, - mr justice daniel francis annan, speaker today said the primary responsibility of a member of parliament is to obey the rulings and authority of the speaker and not to any institutions of the state.

"if any member realises that his conscience will not allow him to function with such a ruling then he can advise himself," he stressed.

mr justice annan said this after allowing the minority leader mr j.h. mensah to make a statement on the new patriotic party's withdrawal from the chamber last thursday and friday in protest against the appearance of two retained ministers for a statement.

mr j.h. mensah explained that their absence from proceedings on those two days were due to their understanding of the ruling of the supreme court on the the status of retained ministers and its implications on the working of the house.

"so far as we are concerned, the concept of retained ministers is dead by order of the supreme court and any actions base on it are unlawful," he said.

he said the minority will withdraw from any proceedings in which their conscience and understanding of the constitution conflict with the chair and they will not be party to any illegality.

mr j.h mensah said it was unfortunate that the issue is being trivialised by some people, adding that "this house must be seen to comply with the law and not in any way think of finding ways to circumvent the constitution and the courts ruling".

he said the minority are anxious that the rightful and lawful things are done in the house and asked that the house re-examine its previous decisions on the matter to be in accordance with the law.

moreover, he said, the resolution that the house adopted on february 14, was based on the concept of retained ministers.

the effect of that resolution was to exempt and insulate certain category of persons from laid down parliamentary procedure, he added.

mr j.h mensah said the minority will seek another opportunity to go into detail about the implications of the judgement. he did not elaborate.

the minority leader put on the table rcy and agreement between the government and care international of belgium.

others are agreement between the government and canadian university students organisation and a draft agreement between the government and echoing hills village incorporated of the united states of america.

copies of the papers were not made available to the press.