{"id":395705,"date":"2018-01-27T13:45:01","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T13:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=395705"},"modified":"2018-01-27T13:45:01","modified_gmt":"2018-01-27T13:45:01","slug":"speaker-taking-multiple-oaths-of-allegiance-needless-haruna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/speaker-taking-multiple-oaths-of-allegiance-needless-haruna\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker taking multiple Oaths of Allegiance needless – Haruna"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has raised further questions with the swearing-in of the Speaker of Parliament,\u00a0Professor Mike Oquaye as acting-President by calling for an amendment to the schedule of oaths for an acting President.<\/p>\n
Mr. Iddrisu called for Oath of Allegiance to be removed from the schedule after the\u00a0Speaker took the oath of office to act as President for the second time in six days.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”toOvdP1F9sq1vwJaXUdRmjwnA02BEtSU”]After Prof. Oquaye’s first swearing-in last Sunday, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, made similar suggestions saying future Speakers of Parliament who may have to act as President should only need to take only the Oath of Secrecy.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the floor of Parliament today [Saturday], Mr. Iddrisu made reference to Section 3 of the Oaths Act which is against the repetition of Oaths.<\/p>\n
“Must the Speaker of Parliament repeat the Oath of Allegiance? My position is, Section 3 of the Oaths Act of 1972 is against the repetition of oaths. Just within the span of less than 10 days, the same Speaker of Parliament who swore an earlier Oath of Allegiance and swore one just a few days ago is being made to swear another oath of allegiance. In my view, that is legally needless and at best, unnecessary. Mr. Speaker, this Parliament must rise to the calling that under article 93 of the constitution, the power to legislate and make laws is ours and we must jealously protect and safeguard it,” the Majority Leader submitted.<\/p>\n
Section 3 of the Oaths Act says: “No person who has duly taken the Oath of Allegiance or the Judicial Oath shall be required again to take that oath on appointment to any other office or on any other occasion…\u00a0 No person shall be required to take any oath on appointment to any office unless that oath is different from or in addition to an oath duly taken by him in respect of any other appointment.”<\/p>\n
The swearing-in is mandated by Article 60 (11) and (12) of the 1992 Constitution and has been necessitated by President Nana Akufo-Addo\u2019s trip to Addis Ababa\u00a0for the AU Summit.<\/p>\n
The Vice President, Dr. Bawumia, is also currently in the United Kingdom\u00a0on medical leave<\/strong><\/a><\/span>\u00a0after being taken ill last week.<\/p>\n The Speaker will be clothed with Presidential powers until Wednesday, 31st<\/sup> January.<\/p>\n Upset MPs<\/strong><\/p>\n Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak, expressed his displeasure with the summoning of MPs for the second swearing-in of the Speaker of Parliament in less than a week to Citi News.<\/p>\n According to Dr. Apaak said the processes prescribed by law were inconveniencing<\/a><\/strong><\/span> several MPs who had made other plans.<\/p>\n