Skip to main content

Prof.Oquaye to be sworn in as acting President Today

The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye will later today [Sunday], January 21, 2018, be sworn-in as acting President of Ghana.
This follows reports that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will be leaving for Monrovia later today, to attend the inauguration of Liberia’s President-elect, George Weah, on Monday.
Ghana’s Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who would have ordinarily taken over as President, is unwell and is on medical leave in the United Kingdom after he left the country last Friday on the advice of his doctors.
A statement issued by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, recalled Parliament for an emergency sitting on Sunday at 2:30pm for the swearing in of the Speaker as acting President.
“In exercise of the power conferred on the Speaker by order 42 (3) of the standing orders of the Parliament of Ghana, I, Honourable Joseph Osei-Owusu, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, pursuant to order 13(2) do hereby summon Parliament to sit on Sunday, 21st January, 2018 at half past two o’clock in the afternoon at Parliament House, Accra for the swearing in of the Right Honourable Speaker as Acting President of the Republic in accordance with article 60(11) and (12) of the 1992 Constitution,” the statement added, but did not give further details.
According to Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, the Speaker of Parliament must be sworn-in in the absence of the President and Vice President.
Article 60 (11) and (12) of the 1992 Constitution states that:
(11) Where the President and the Vice-President are both unable to perform the functions of the President, the Speaker of Parliament shall perform those functions until the President or the Vice-President is able to perform those functions or a new President assumes office, as the case may be.” “(12) The Speaker shall, before commencing to perform the functions of the President under clause (11) of this article, take and subscribe the oath set out in relation to the office of President.
When the swearing-in of a Speaker was breached
The law was breached by a former Speaker of Parliament, Doe Adjaho in 2014, when he refused take the oath of office as acting President at a point. Both President Mahama and his Vice Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, had traveled outside the country at the time.
This compelled the Managing Director of Citi FM, Samuel Atta-Mensah, and a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, Prof. Kwaku Asare, to file a suit at the Supreme Court, to among other things, seek an interpretation of Article 60 (12) of the 1992 Constitution, which requires that the Speaker takes the oath of office each time he is to act as President.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared that the Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Edward Doe Adjaho, violated Article 60 (11)-(12) of the 1992 Constitution when he declined to be sworn in to act as President when President John Dramani Mahama and Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur travelled outside the country in November 2014.
The nine-member panel, presided over by Mrs Justice Sophia Akuffo, also averred that the “Speaker of Parliament shall always, before assuming the functions of the Office of President when the President and the Vice-President are unable to perform their functions, take and subscribe to the oath set out in relation to the Office of President”.
“The Speaker is obliged to swear the oath each time he assumes the Office of the President. There is no ambiguity in articles 60 (11) and 60 (12),” Mr Justice Sulley Gbadegbe, who read the court’s decision, said.
–

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reduce JHS Subject to 6-Education Directors

The Conference of Directors of Education (CODE) has advocated the reduction of the number of subjects studied at the various levels of basic education. It suggested that while pupils in the kindergarten and lower primary should study only numeracy, literature and physical education, those in upper primary and students in junior high school (JHS) should be made to study six subjects, instead of nine. In a communique issued at the end of the 24th annual conference of CODE at Abesim, near Sunyani, last Saturday, the conference expressed the view that the use of chalk had outlived its usefulness in schools and, therefore, suggested that blackboards should be replaced with whiteboards and markers provided for use by teachers. The communique, signed by the National President and the National Secretary of CODE, Mrs Margaret Frempong-Kore, and Mr Isaac Nsiah Edwards, respectively, did not assign any reasons for the proposal to the educational authorities to reduce the number of subjects bei...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sometime I worry about Akuffo Addo-Okudzeto reveal on Joy Media

Experienced lawyer, and a member of the Council of State, Sam Okudzeto, has shed light on President Nana Akufo-Addo’s work ethic, revealing that he frequently works late into the night. The former President of the Ghana Bar Association said contrary to the popular view that being the highest public servant is a comfortable job, it comes with a lot of tough calls and self-sacrifice – and for Nana Akufo-Addo, who wants to leave a lasting legacy, it can become a source of worry for people close to him. “It is not an easy job. Sometimes I worry for him in the sense that he works too much...he will wake up very early in the morning and work till about 10 o’clock in the evening...Sometimes I tell him, ‘please take your time and rest and cut down on what you are doing.’ “He is a man in a hurry...a man who wants to achieve results. He needs for us to encourage him and to help him because it is not a one-man job. Governance is not a one-person job...s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghana not safe under Akufo-Addo's 'elephant size' government - Asiedu Nketia

Ghana not safe under Akufo-Addo's 'elephant size' government - Asiedu Nketia Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of NDC General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has lambasted President Akufo-Addo for failing to secure Ghanaians. In mincing no words, the outspoken politician who is popularly referred to as General Mosquito, said he feels scandalized that after the appointment of an ‘elephant size’ government, the state is unsecured. The impunity, lawlessness, vigilantism are just but few of the insecurity scenarios in the country, he said. Speaking to Kwame Tutu on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, he said it was only under this government that Ghanaians witnessed the appointment of 110 ministers. We witnessed the appointment of a National Security Minister and his Deputies, Interior Minister and his Deputies, National Security Coordinator and the Defence Minister and his Deputies yet we are witnessing an unprecedented killing of...
1 comment
Read more

frim

I heart FeedBurner

Info