By Omar Bah
The chairperson of the National Assembly special select committee on the monitoring and implementation of the state of public emergency, Alhagie Mbowe said the parliament is in unwanted situation after they rejected the extension of the state of emergency.
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Mariam Jack-Denton yesterday adjourned the parliament’s planned session on the revised budget expenditure and the supplementary appropriation bill to today without giving any explanation.
But Mbowe said the adjournment has “nothing to do with the executive. It was done simply because we wanted to continue the consultation with regard to the extension of the state of emergency to see how best we can salvage the situation because the National Assembly has put itself in a very precarious situation after rejecting the extension.”
“I am not aware of anything like this before. So the adjournment is because the business we are supposed to conduct which is to see if we can salvage the situation has not happened. The minister of finance was supposed to come to table a supplementary appropriation bill. But the bill has a direct connection to the extension of the state of public emergency,” he clarified.
Last Saturday lawmakers rejected the government’s plans to extend the state of public emergency to another 45 days.
For any sitting to take place with regard to the state of emergency, the government would have to come up with another motion. However, the president is empowered to declare another state of emergency for one week.
