A heated debate erupted on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday when the Majority Caucus requested the Speaker of Parliament to declare the New Patriotic Party member of Parliament for Kpandai a persona non grata and be marched out of the Chamber.
The Majority Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, said based on the ruling by the Tamale High Court, which had been duly served on Parliament, Mr Nyindam must be barred from participating in all businesses in the plenary.
But the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, prayed the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, who was presiding, to reject the Majority’s request.
The argument erupted when Mr Nyindam, whose election was annulled by the Tamale High Court on November 24, 2025, was due to contribute to the debate on the 2026 budget statement on the floor, but the Majority objected to his contribution on the grounds that he was no longer a member of the House.
Making the appeal to the Speaker to declare the Kpandai MP persona non grata, Mr Dafeamekpor said he received the Tamale High Court order from a bailiff on Tuesday, a reason Mr Nyindam could no longer participate in the business of the House.
He said the Speaker, the Clerk-to-Parliament, and the Legal Department were also properly served with the order today.
“So Honourable Nyindam is now a persona non grata. On this floor and as a member of Parliament, the court says he must go back and go through the processes, and if he is truly re-elected, he can come back.“If he was minded to appeal the decision of the High Court, it was his right which he had duly done so, but it is trite that mere filing of an appeal does not operate as a stay of execution of the court’s orders,” he said.
The MP for South Dayi said a mere filing of a stay of execution application also did not operate as a stay against the execution of the orders of the court.
Don’t extend courtesies
He said Parliament, having been duly served, had a duty under law to ensure that Mr. Nyindam was no longer extended the courtesies by the House.
He recalled that when the NDC Assin South MP, James Gyekye Quayson, was ordered by the Cape Coast High Court that he should go through a re-run of his election, the then Majority NPP members, led by Mr Afenyo-Markin, spoke vociferously against the fact that Mr Quayson could not be entertained in the House. Eventually, he said Mr Quayson had to leave the House, saying that “this is a path that we have travelled”.
“Precedent has been laid and set, and so nobody can urge on this House today that Honourable Nyindam must have a voice today.
“It would not happen since the orders of the High Court are directed at Parliament as well as the Electoral Commission to order a re-run of the election within 30 days,” he said.
Saying that he would not allow his caucus to disobey the orders of the court, Mr Dafeamekpor prayed the Speaker to march Mr Nyindam out of the Chamber based on past precedent.
“I am not saying so, but this is the precedent set by this side when they were here,” he said.
Reject request
Reacting, the Minority Leader challenged Mr Dameakpor’s claim that he argued for the Speaker to march Mr Quayson out of the Chamber when his case came up.
He said never did he, as Leader of the House, advocate that Mr Quayson, having lost a High Court case, should be marched out of the Chamber.
He explained that after the Cape Coast High Court ruling, Mr Quayson filed an appeal and a stay of execution.Based on that, the House never denied him his right of entry and his right to be heard, he said.
He said in the Eighth Parliament, when Mr Alban Sumana Kinsford Bagbin presided, the Cape Coast High Court ruling on the citizenship matter did not automatically lead to an order for Mr Quayson to be ordered out of the Chamber.
“Mr Speaker, for Mr Gyekye Quayson to be ordered out, it has to be done by the Speaker,” he said.
He argued that whereas in the Gyekye Quayson matter the judgment of the court was made available to all parties, the judgment of Nyindam’s case would be made available on Friday.
Describing as inappropriate the application by Mr Dafeamekpor to the Speaker to march Mr Nyindam out of the Chamber, Mr Afenyo-Markin prayed the Speaker to reject the Majority Chief Whip’s request to him.Responding, the second deputy Speaker said he had received written notification from the Speaker to put on hold the matter until he himself resumed the chair.
