CHAOS erupted in Ghana’s parliament late on Thursday night, with lawmakers destroying furniture, and pushing and shoving each other.
Police were called into the meeting – held to vet Ghana’s new ministerial appointments – as MPs damaged tables and microphones.
The vetting committee had disagreed over a number of issues, with some accusing opposition MPs of dragging out the process in order to settle political scores.
On Friday morning the vetting committee’s chairman apologised to the Ghanaian public, calling it “totally unacceptable”.
The cross-party committee had been scheduled to vet three lawmakers from the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The trio had been nominated for ministerial positions after the NDC triumphed over the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in December’s elections.
However, NDC MPs accused Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the NPP’s leader in parliament, of questioning the ministerial nominees for an unnecessarily long time.
More than five hours were spent on vetting just one nominee – communications minister designate Samuel Nartey George.
Many NDC MPs believe this was a form of payback from opposition MPs on the committee, who wanted George to retract his criticism of former president and NPP leader Nana Akufo-Addo and Akufo-Addo’s Vice-President Mahamadu Bawumia.
Members of the vetting committee ended up on their feet – shouting, pushing and shoving each other and upturning tables.
As a result, the Speaker of parliament suspended four lawmakers – three from the NPP and one from the governing party – for two weeks.
On Friday, the NPP’s Afenyo-Markin said parliamentary customs allowed committee members “the opportunity to enquire deeply into every nominee of the president, without limit to questions”.
He accused the NDC of trying to “frustrate” this process.
As a result of the chaos, the vetting ended up being adjourned until Friday.