The Executive Director of the Africa Center for Parliamentary Affairs, (ACEPA), Dr. Rasheed Dramani has suggested that Parliament should be closed down immediately to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the members.

This follows the announcement by Speaker Alban Bagbin that some lawmakers who tested positive for the virus are still entering parliament to do business.

The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, said this when he delivered a communication from the Speaker on the floor of Parliament Wednesday, February 3.

“Some Members of Parliament who have tested positive to COVID-19 are still coming to the Chamber.”

“The Speaker wishes to inform that if those members do not withdraw and isolate, he will be forced to publish the names of members who have tested positive in order to warn the rest of us.”

"Please, let us take this protocol seriously and let us all members who have been informed of their test results, that they have tested positive to withdraw from the precincts of Parliament, not just the Chamber."

“Stay home and self-isolate to go through the protocol and recover before you return to the House,” he stated.

Dr. Rasheed Dramani who spoke on the 3FM Sunrise Morning Show on 92.7 Thursday, February 4, called on the leadership in the house to discipline recalcitrant MPs.

“Parliament should be shut down by now and I think the initiative by the Rt. Hon Speaker to do some form of rotation and some of the work done virtually is in the right direction."

“There is too much indiscipline whether you are talking about absenteeism to all these things happening."

“We keep talking about this but until somebody is made an example and we crack the whip, I don’t think the system is going to change,” he said.