Power outages halt parliamentary proceeding

Accra, June 10, GNA - Power outages on Wednesday halted Parliamentary proceedings for over an hour.

The power flickered on and off three times and never came back again until 11:15 hours.

The first Deputy Speaker, Mr Doe Adjaho, who sat in for the Speaker, therefore could not stay to chair proceedings so he returned immediately to his office.

When proceedings resumed, Mr Isaac Asiamah member for Atwima-Mponua, who attempted to comment on the matter, was restrained. Mr Adjaho told the House that even though he summoned those responsible for energy to explain the outages, he could not disclose the outcome of their discussion saying it would be explained to the House on Thursday. Later there a disagreements between the Majority and the Minority as to whether the Deputy Energy Minister, Dr Emmanuel Buah should answer questions on behalf of his Minister, Dr Oteng Adjei.

Mr Cletus Avoka, Majority Leader appealed for the House to accept Dr Buah to answer the questions on behalf of the Minister. The Minority however accused Dr Oteng Adjei as avoiding parliament.

Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minority Leader said they were not against the Deputy Ministers answering questions on behalf of their Ministers but where it seemed there was the intent to avoid parliament it would be a problem.

"The Minister in most cases intently finds a way to excuse himself from parliament," he said and called on Mr Avoka to established reasons for his absence.

According to Mr Avoka, Dr Adjei was in the House to respond to the questions, but had an urgent call to come to the castle. The Minister later came to answer the questions.