Speaker recalls MPs from recess for ‘urgent business’

Members of Parliament have been recalled from their recess by the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye.
They are to sit on Thursday, April 26 and Friday, April 27, 2018.
A memo read on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen did not disclose reasons for the recall, except to say it is for an “urgent parliamentary business.”
There are however suggestions that this recall may be linked to some issues around Ghana-US defence cooperation agreements.
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In March, the government said it intended to trigger a recall of Parliament to ratify the 1998 and the 2015 defence cooperation agreements the country signed with the US under different National Democratic Congress (NDC) administrations.
The Information Minister, Dr. Mustapha Hamid, explained to Citi News that following the Supreme Court judgement that ordered the agreement to host the detainees from Guantanamo Bay on the behest of the US to Parliament for ratification, the government has said the 1998 and 2015 agreements are essentially unlawful.
“We intend to cure that defect by taking the 1998 and 2015 agreements to Parliament for Parliament to give us ratification so that we will continue to operate under these current arrangements that we have until we have completed the processes for triggering the 2018 arrangements,” he said.
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He added that the ratification of these old deals is to ensure that there is a legal framework, guiding the collaboration of the US and Ghanaian armies, as it works to implement the controversial 2018 defence cooperation.