There was drama in the the Ugandan parliament on Wednesday afternoon after one of the country’s lawmakers, Kyadondo East MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda was physically lifted out of the house by the Sergeant-at-arms.
Ssemujju’s trouble stems from the parliamentary session during debate on the controversial Public Order Management Bill in which he was suspended for three sittings together with fellow lawmakers Odonga Otto and Theodore Sekikubo for misconduct
The trio was ordered to return to the house with written apologies. The Mps vowed to maintain their stand of accessing the parliament chambers without the apology letters.
However, on Wednesday as the house debated the equally controversial Anti-pornography Bill 2011, Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanya who was chairing the session suspended the house for 10 minutes, to give Hon. Ssemujju Nganda time to move out of the house.
A defiant Ssemujju refused to leave the house forcing the Speaker to ask the sergeant at arms to order Hon. Ssemujju to leave the house.
Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanya
However, Ssemujju refused to leave the house even after the sergeant at arms asked him to leave saying;
“You can carry me if you want, I will enjoy myself, but am not leaving the house,”
It was at this point that the Speaker ordered the sergeant-at-arms to get Ssemujju out of the house.
“I hear by order the sergeant at arms to get the Hon. Member Ssemujju Nganda out of the house ” Oulanyah ordered.
There were dramatic scenes coupled with chaos as Ssemujju was physically lifted out of the house by the sergeant-at-arms.
Ssemujju later held a press conference in parliament and it was here that he accused the speaker of violating parliament rules saying he had served his suspension.
“The speaker has broken all the rules of parliament by suspending me because I already served by 3 day suspension, ” Hon. Ssemujju said.
He added saying ”There were men armed with guns accessing parliament chambers, which is illegal”
No comments:
Post a Comment