Military were professional when they entered Parliament - Kpemka

Former Member of Parliament for Tempane and a Deputy Attorney General, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, said the military who intervened when chaos occurred during the election of a speaker for the 8th Parliament were professional in their conduct.

He said they did not attack or assault anybody when they intervened, rather, he said they helped to calm the tension in the house.

He told Abena Tabi, host of the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, January 9 that the military were professional when they entered the chamber to douse the tension.

“A certain situation invited the military into the system. When they got into the chamber what was their conduct? Did they attack MPs? Did they beat MPs? No.
“You may condemn their entry but their conduct was professional,” he said.

For his part, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Ningo Prampram lawmaker Samuel Nartey George accused Defence Minister who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Bimbila, Dominic Nitiwul, for being the brain behind the military invasion of parliament when chaos occurred during the election of a new speaker for the 8th parliament on January 7.

Sam George said on the same show that Mr Nitiwul who he described as a former Defence Minister, kept telling the NDC’s side of the House that if they did not behave well, he was going to order the Military to come in.

But, he said, they replied him saying, ‘he did not have the power to do so.’

He told host of the programme Abena Tabi that “Whiles we were in the House the former Minister of Defence Dominic Nitiwul kept on telling us that if we did not behave ourselves he was going to bring in the military and we kept telling him he had no power to do so.”

Military men stormed the chamber following a stalemate between MPs-elect for the NDC and NPP sides while they were electing a new Speaker of the House.

Some Ghanaians including former President John Dramani Mahama condemned the intervention of the military and called for a thorough investigation into the matter.

“The recent use of the military in civil democratic processes has become a major worry and gives the impression that this administration is continually seeking to resurrect the exorcised ghosts of our military past. Parliament must conduct an investigation into the two incidents and exact appropriate sanctions,” the President Candidate of the NDC in the last elections said in a tweet.