(L-R) A photo collage of Frank Annoh-Dompreh, Mahama Ayariga and Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin
The Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, clashed with the Minority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, during proceedings in the House on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.
The clash was over the insistence of the Minority Leader, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, to use the dispatch table during the questioning of the Minister for Trade and Industry, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, who was summoned to the House to answer some questions on her sector.
Mahama Ayariga, the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, said that his side of the House is not going to allow Afenyo-Markin to ask his question using the dispatch box because it was a contravention of the Standing Orders of the House.
“Mr. Speaker, can you have the Minority Leader show us which standing order he stands on to ask questions from the dispatch table? Which standing order? Because our Standing Orders are clear. At question time, the Speaker shall call successively each member in whose name a question stands on the Order Paper. The member shall rise and ask the question that stands in the name of the member on the Order Paper.
“Mr. Speaker, you should show me the basis for him always wanting to go and ask his questions from there. When every other member, including myself, stands here to ask questions. If he should go to the dispatch box to ask a question, if I have follow-up questions, will I also go to the dispatch box to ask follow-up questions? Mr. Speaker, we cannot allow this,” he said.
He added, “Why are we overindulging him? As for today, it will not happen. Mr. Speaker, he will not go to the dispatch box to ask questions. He will stand where he is and ask the question, and the minister will answer the question. It is only the minister who can go to the dispatch box to answer the question.”
The Minority Chief Whip then rose to the defence of Afenyo-Markin, challenging Ayariga to state the Standing Orders that prevent Afenyo-Markin from asking his question from the dispatch box.
Annoh-Dompreh accused the Majority Leader of being emotional over the incident, insisting the Minority Leader had every right to ask his questions from the dispatch table.
“There’s a lot of emotions that the respected leader is displaying. And he is quoting Order 88-1… I humbly want to find out from the leader, he should tell me which order allows him to make statements on the dispatch box. And where there are statements made, closing statements, when the Majority Leader speaks, the Minority Leader speaks on the dispatch box. He should tell us the order in this book,” he said.
The 1st Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor, who was presiding over the House, ruled that MPs are not to use the dispatch box to ask questions.
“Any member in his representative capacity [as MP] but not in the capacity of the caucus should rise in his or her place to ask a question, and not use the dispatch box,” Bernard Ahiafor declared.
Watch a video of the clash below:
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