The Member of Parliament for Wa West, Peter Lanchene Toobu, has accused the Member of Parliament for Damongo, Samuel Abu Jinapor, of disrespecting Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin during proceedings that led to his removal from the Chamber on Tuesday, November 3.
Mr Toobu said the Speaker made several attempts to get Abu Jinapor to withdraw or reconsider his comments about alleged payments for diplomatic passports, but the Damongo MP ignored his guidance.
The incident occurred after Abu Jinapor alleged in Parliament that diplomatic passports were being sold for amounts ranging from $10,000 to $50,000, prompting a disagreement with the Speaker.
Speaker Bagbin subsequently directed him to leave the Chamber, a decision that led the Minority caucus to stage a walkout in solidarity with their colleague.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, November 7, Mr Toobu said he had observed the exchanges and believed the Speaker was trying to give Abu Jinapor an opportunity to return to the debate after reconsidering his remarks.
“The Speaker wanted to save him and the Speaker said, ‘you know what, I know that you will want to go and come back so that when you come back fully prepared, you can still make this statement so would you want to withdraw or it will be expunged from the record?
“One thing that is dangerous about this current Parliament is the fact that, in the past, you could expunge things from the record and the Hansard would not capture it and that ends it, but today, it is live so the Speaker was guiding him. And you know what my brother Abu did? He was so disrespectful to the Speaker. I was watching him. What Abu intended to do was to embellish the statement that he made and create content out of it and spin it into the media domain.”
