Military invasion of Parliament a blot on Ghana’s democracy – Haruna Iddrisu

Haruna Iddrisu, the leader of the NDC caucus in Parliament has condemned the invasion of the parliamentary chamber by armed military men during the voting for the speakership of the house.

A group of armed security men stormed the floor of parliament when chaos broke out in the process of electing the speaker of the eighth parliament.

There was a stand-off between NDC MPs and the soldiers which lasted nearly twenty minutes.

At a press conference held in Parliament today, January 14, 2021, Haruna Iddrisu described the incident as sacrilege’.

He said that the incident has left a dark spot on Ghana’s democratic credentials.

He served notice that the NDC caucus will ensure that Parliament takes action against the invasion of the house by the soldiers.

“It remains a blot on our democratic practice as a country and never should that happen,” Mr. Iddrisu stated.

“Tomorrow, on the Floor of Parliament, a lot will have to happen because we have to do an inner introspection of our own.”

Meanwhile, Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress has called for investigations into how military officers were allowed into the floor of parliament.

“The security of parliament is in the hands of the Marshals. Parliament is an autonomous institution like a university so for the marshal to allow state security to invade the chamber of parliament with weapons is so abominable”.

“At the time, the incident happened, there was no president in the country so if soldiers invade parliament then it’s a coup. It was just not announced but it was an attempted coup. It is a very serious thing that happened. We have to investigate and find out who issued the command to the soldiers.

“People have video clips that has Nitiwul, Bryan Acheampong and Ambrose Dery. We must investigate all of them. We should find out in which capacity they were acting because at the time, their president was not in power,” he explained.