Map of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State. (Courtesy).

The Speaker of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Parliament has denied allegations that she closed the August House without following due procedures.

Honorable Achol William Amoi maintained that she declared the recess for the state MPs in accordance with the assembly’s business code of conduct.

On April 24, 2024, over 30 lawmakers in the state criticized what they termed as unconstitutional closure of the state parliament by the Speaker citing unfinished business.

They questioned why Speaker Amoi announced the recess immediately after the parliament summoned the state ministers of finance and education.

The finance minister was to present a quarterly report on sales tax and revenue collections in the state while the Minister of Education was to present the institution’s budget for 2023 and 2024.

In response, Speaker Achol William Amoi said the assembly agreed to extend its sittings to one month within which the fiscal year budget was prioritized.

In an interview with Eye Radio, Amoi said she has no choice but to declare recess after the end of the required three months.

“The conduct of business says every 3 months, the assembly go for recess. We have spent three months, then the government came in with a budget,” she said.

“We gave the priority now to government business which is the budget. We made extension for one month and I had to notify them that we are going for recess and the budget is coming.”

“The members have to discuss how many times we have to extend, then they decided that it should be one month.”

“On the process of the budget, one month was almost finishing and according to the conduct of business, I had to give them a notification, and the notification was done and they had two motions.”

She added that the decision was taken based on the votes of majority of the MPs as per the code of business conduct.

“One says two weeks and another one says one week. One week is half the number of the two weeks and was for the majority. According to our conduct of business the majority wins and the majority are the ones who won for one week.”

“In one week, we finished the budget and one week elapsed, according to our conduct of business, when the days elapse, then there is no more extension.”

The lawmakers also complained last week that they were also on the verge of passing the Arab nomad’s seasonal cattle migration bill already in its third reading.

The angry parliamentarians say the speaker sent them on recess before completing the tasks and did not follow the assembly’s procedures.

They accused the Speaker of violating the constitution as per the assembly’s business code of conduct.