Ibrahim Murtala Muhammad, a member of parliament (MP) for Tamale Central, has clarified remarks he made about majority leader and minister for parliamentary affairs Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu being a dealer in spare parts.
The MP criticized Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu for claiming that Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, did not comprehend Ghanaian legislation.
On Wednesday, October 26, 2022, in an interview with TV3, Murtala claimed that the majority leader has been unnecessarily challenging the Speaker and criticizing him. The interview was caught on GhanaWeb.
He added that Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu could not in any way compare himself to Speaker Alban Bagbin when it comes to constitutional and legal matters.
“The Majority Leader has a penchant for attacking the person of the Speaker. And he does that all the time. Any opportunity he gets, he picks on the Speaker. He did that on the floor. The Speaker didn’t want to sink into the gutters, and the Speaker was very diplomatic.
“You listened to him in the press conference and he even said that the Speaker doesn’t even understand the law. When the Speaker was a lawyer practising, you, Honourable Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, you were selling spare parts at Magazine, at the time the Speaker was a practising lawyer,” he said.
Speaking in an interview on Onua TV, which was monitored by GhanaWeb, the Tamale Central MP said that he never met to belittle spare part dealers.
He explains that his father was a spare parts dealer and that he and his brother even managed his shops at some point.
He added that he was trying to make the point that the Speaker of Parliament is superior to the Majority leader when it comes to matters of law.
“The statement I made is being deliberately misconstrued. I had a colleague who said I was talking about spare parts dealers and I said that is the most amateurish thing.
“My father was a spare parts dealer in Tamale. My father was dealing in bicycles, sewing machines and spare parts of same. I was in that business managing two of my father’s shops. So, my school fees was paid from spare parts and other.
“So, it (my statement) has nothing to do with spare parts dealers, it has everything to do with Honourable Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu,” he said,