The Appointments Committee sitting on Wednesday took an unexpected turn following a heated exchange between the Chairman, Bernard Ahiafor and the Ranking Member, Alexander Afenyo-Markin.
This was during the vetting of Deputy Attorney General and Justice Minister-designate, Justice Srem-Sai.
Tensions flared with the vetting ended abruptly after Mr. Afenyo-Markin requested the nominee to demonstrate a particular dance from his culture.
The Chairman however overruled the question but the Minority Leader who was not happy accused him of being unfair and interrupting rudely.
But the chairman defended his actions, insisting he had every right to overrule the question.
According to him, Afenyo-Markin was lucky he didn’t cite him for contempt.
“I take great exception to the Minority leader saying I am whimsical, capricious, and that I rudely interrupted. As Chairman of the Committee, I have the right to overrule a question especially when there is an attempt to turn the vetting committee into a dancing floor. The just thing for me to do was to overrule that particular question,” he stated.
He reminded Afenyo-Markin that parliamentary rules require members to withdraw unparliamentary language when used in the house.
“Even in Parliament, when unparliamentary language is used, members are required to withdraw and sometimes apologise. He is even lucky I have not cited him for contempt,” he declared after Afenyo-Markin refused to render an apology to the despite his insistence.
The Chairman eventually ended Mr. Srem-Sai’s vetting.
In response to the Chairman’s decision, the Minority Leader announced a rejection of his nomination and boycotted the rest of the day’s vetting although the session continued.