Bagbin will never make the mistake of wrongly passing E-Levy – Annoh-Dompreh

Major Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has refuted suggestions by the members of the minority caucus of Parliament that the passage of the E-Levy is illegal because there was no quorum in the House for the bill to be passed.

According to Annoh-Dompreh, the majority caucus followed the right procedures, and the question of a quorum never arose during the passage of the E-Levy bill.

In a Neat FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, he added that the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, is an astute legislator and will never make the error of wrongly passing the E-Levy.

“Nobody is going to stop them (Minority); they don’t even have to give us notice; they should hurry up and go to the Supreme Court. But, from our side, when we look at the Standing Orders of Parliament and the things that transpired yesterday, the passage of the levy was legal.

“The speaker is a seasoned politician, a lawyer and a legislator and based on recent happening in the House; he will not make that mistake (of wrongfully passing the E-Levy). The question of a quorum never arose at all. If you are aggrieved, the Supreme Court is there, but we have done what is necessary,” he said in Twi.

He added that “…if you fight with someone and you beat the person, the only thing the person does is complain. Yesterday, I listened to my respected friend, the minority leader, and very untypical of him, he was fumbling.”

The majority chief whip, who is also the Member of Parliament for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, indicated that the next stage is for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to assent the bill for it to become a law.

“The E-Levy was read the 3rd time and has been passed… like any other bill, if the president assents the E-Levy, then it will become a law,” he said.

Meanwhile, the minority caucus in Parliament has indicated that the passage of the bill was illegal, citing the lack of quorum.

According to the Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, the House did not have the numbers to decide on the passage of the bill, for which reason he believes the recent Supreme Court ruling has been violated.

“The House had less than 137 in the chamber. They only proceeded in illegal business,” he said.