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3 years agoon
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Joe PeeMember of Parliament for Bekwai and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, alias Joe Wise, has explained why he has not presided over the since the near-violent scenes witnessed in Parliament on December 1, 2021.
Joe Wise, sitting in for absentee Speaker Alban Bagbin, issued a ruling that created a commotion in the House forcing him to adjourn sitting.
Since that incident and his adjournment, he has not returned to the seat. When the House resumed that day, Second Deputy Speaker and MP for Fomena, Andrew Asiamah Amoako resumed the seat and adjourned sitting.
Questions were raised as to why Joe Wise did not resume his seat and also why he did not preside on Thursday, he addressed his absence on ‘The Probe,’ a programme that aired on Joy News last Sunday.
“On Thursday (December 2, 2021) I called a meeting of the leaders to discuss what I’d seen in videos after I left the chamber. So when the leadership came…they informed me that indeed a committee had been set up by the two sides.
“It is because I wanted to understand what happened after I left the Chamber. And after we had the discussion we agreed that we will not do any serious business for that morning, there was no point for me to sit, so, I asked the Second Deputy to go and do as we have agreed.”
Parliament sat for less than five minutes on Thursday, December 2, 2021; before the house was adjourned by the Second Deputy Speaker.
“Yes we went to the chamber and decided to defer all matters till next week….we sat in the chambers, we faced each other and then we adjourned.
“That is because of the decision by the leaders after the meetings, they communicated to us that they had decided that we should adjourn to next week. I think basically that is what happened, I mean for very strategic reasons,” Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga said of the brief sitting in a Citi News interview last Friday.
Sitting resumes today after MPs took last Friday to join the National Farmer’s Day celebration. It is not known as yet if Joe Wise will resume his seat. There are reports that some Minority MPs are doing all it takes to ensure that he does not preside over the House.
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Bagbin haven’t spoken to me after I overturned his Budget ruling – Joe Wise.