Government has withdrawn and re-laid the controversial Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Bill before Parliament.
The bill, which was laid before Parliament in February 2016 was to allow the country’s security agencies to listen in on private conversations of citizens for the purposes of fighting crime, but it instead generated a heated public debate.
[contextly_sidebar id=”PCsymJWDE1kBe9wUfj8VMP2aqnAUhLmN”]Deputy Minister of Interior, James Agalga, told Parliament that government decided to withdraw the original bill and lay a new one after listening to concerns raised by various stakeholders.
The Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho announced the withdrawal and relaying of the bill to Members of Parliament on Thursday.
“The application has been made for the withdrawal of the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages Bill which was laid in the House on February 3, 2016. It is accordingly withdrawn and the referral that was made on that day to the Defence and Interior Committee is accordingly withdrawn. And that means that there is nothing now before the Defence and Interior Committee.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Ranking member of Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, Major (Rtd) Derrick Oduro said the new bill laid is expected to address the many concerns of Ghanaians which were not taken into account in the original bill.
The Nkoranza North MP told Citi News that the new bill is in the right direction it has been fortified to stand the test of time.
“This interception bill has gone far and wide and people have spoken for and against it. Others have also expressed their own opinions on it. There are so many people who petitioned, about 20. We had to listen to them and we called them before the committee and they made inputs. They sent their memorandum to us and then we had to take them on board. When the committee also sat, we made numerous amendments and that even that affected the memorandum of the bill.”
“It has to go back to Cabinet and Cabinet in their own wisdom thought that the old one must be withdrawn and a new one replaced. It has been brought to Parliament now and it has again been referred to the Committee and we are going to sit on it again and we know that because of the various amendments that we made…we have to consider all these changes and make it again. So it is not out of place that a new one has been put in place to replace the old one so that we will get a bill which when passed into law will stand the test of time,” he added.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin