Private legal practitioner Samson Lardy Anyenini has said MPs are misinterpreting the law regarding their arrests by Police.
He told Starr News that “the law should not be misread, and it should not be misinterpreted. It is that when you are attending to parliament or you are attending to a business of parliament, or you are returning from parliament or returning from a business of parliament that cannot include being present and leading a demonstration.”
His statement comes after the speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin referred Madina MP, Francis Xavier Sosu’s contempt of parliament complaint against two police officers to the privileges committee.
This follows claims by the Madina lawmaker that he was mishandled by the police after he led a demonstration over the poor nature of roads in his constituency.
Reacting to the matter, Anyenini insisted that “it doesn’t make good legal sense or even common sense to say that on every issue, you need the fiat or the warrant of the speaker before you can effect an arrest.”
He added it will not make sense that “if an MP was seen misconducting themselves or committing a crime, they were seen committing murder or some serious offense and the police chances on that MP, you are saying that they need to write to the speaker before they can arrest them? No that’s not the law.”
Sosu had earlier petitioned Parliament to cite two police officers from the Adenta Divisional and Accra Regional Command for contempt of Parliament for displaying ‘unprofessional conduct’.
