[ 2014-11-19 ]

Speaker, MPs isolate Daboya MP over 'Alomo jata' comment
The NDC Member of Parliament for Daboya/Mankarugu,
Nelson Abudu Baani, has been isolated in
Parliament following his infamous 'alomo jata' and
stone-the-adulterous-woman comments.
Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho has described as
unparliamentary the MP's use of local slang,
'alomo jata' to describe women and wants the
Leadership of the House to take action on the
matter.
He also directed the embattled MP to find another
space to deal with his stone-the-adulterous-woman
comment because that was not made on the floor of
Parliament.
Baani, who has been hugely anonymous for many
years in the house, became instantly famous after
he contributed to a debate on the controversial
intestate succession bill.
He argued: "Mr Speaker, the bill will bring a lot
of controversy in my area. I went through page 10
and I saw the definition of parents and it
includes the natural mother and natural fathers.
"Mr Speaker some of these women are 'Alomo Jata'
(difficult or quarrelsome women) in their houses.
If maybe a woman that I marry brings me a bastard,
what is the punishment for those kinds of women?"
The comment on the floor initially did not provoke
as much controversy as the one he made outside of
Parliament.
He told Adom FM's Parliamentary correspondent Kojo
Fodjour adulterous women must be hanged or stoned
to death to bring sanity into families.
It was a suggestion he believed should be
incorporated into the intestate succession bill
currently before Parliament.
That suggestion has opened him up for huge public
ridicule and criticism with some demanding a
retraction, an apology and a resignation.
He was forced to apologise on air in an interview
with Joy News but that is not enough to settle the
matter.
Female Members of Parliaments have vehemently
protested against the comments made in and outside
Parliament.
One of them, Tema West MP, Irene Naa Torshie Addo,
said it should never be said of Ghana's Parliament
that the House accepted and glorified a comment by
a member calling women 'alomo jata' and asking for
their stoning.
She, therefore, demanded that the comment be
expunged from the records.
The Chairman of the Muslim caucus in Parliament,
Dr. Alhassan Ahmed Yakubu said, "I'd like to
unequivocally distance the Muslim caucus from the
statement by one of our members.
"...He made the statement as an individual MP and
is not representing either the Muslim community in
Ghana or the Muslim caucus in Parliament," he
stated.
The Speaker of Parliament said the statement made
outside the floor of the House is the MP's own
problem and he must deal with it alone.
He reminded members that Parliamentary immunity
does not extend beyond the floor of the house.

Source - MyjoyOnline

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