By Catherine Pule -kalemba
DRAMA ensued in the August house as proceedings at the National Assembly of Zambia were disrupted following the suspension of Petauke member of parliament, Emmanuel Banda.
Banda popularly known as Jay Jay was suspended for 30 days from the national assembly by deputy speaker, Attractor Chisangano for contempt of the House.
Following Chisangano's ruling, Banda reluctantly complied.
Moving from his seat to stand behind the bar as instructed, he put up a show which caused a commotion leading to the disruption of the house activities till a 10 minutes break was given by the speaker.
Before Banda was escorted out, he was already up in arms trying to do an Anthony Joshua outside of the boxing ring on Katombola member of parliament, Clement Andeleki while lamenting that the matter could have been sorted out differently in an amicable way.
The whole drama originated from allegations by Andeleki, that Banda had made defamatory remarks in a video circulating on social media and other platforms.
In the video, Banda allegedly stated, "We are chased from parliament to enable them misappropriate funds," which Andeleki deemed as bringing the reputation of the National Assembly into disrepute.
In response to Andeleki's complaint, the office of the clerk requested Banda to provide his side of the story on the matter, in accordance with parliamentary procedures and rules of natural justice.
Chisangano disclosed that Banda cited a lack of access to the video footage to fully understand the complaint and respond adequately.
Subsequently, the office of the clerk sent the video footage to Banda via email for his review.
However, despite being provided with the evidence, Banda chose not to respond to the letter sent to him.
In her ruling, Chisangano confirmed that Banda's remarks constituted a breach of parliamentary conduct which led to the suspension.
