THE eight Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs), who were suspended for their disruptive behaviour in the National Assembly and the removal of the Parliamentary Mace in December 2021, are required to pay the monies owed to the State in the suspension case, in seven days from March 10, 2023.

This was highlighted in a letter penned by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, to Opposition member and attorney, Roysdale Forde, on March 10, 2023.

AG Nandlall emphasised that to date, no payment has been made by the MPs in breach of the order of the court in a ruling rendered by Justice Damone Younge.

Failure to complete the payment of costs awarded in the case, the letter stated, “would result in enforcement of the aforesaid Order of Court without further notice.”

The MPs were mandated to pay $350,000 in costs to the state by February 6, according to the decision rendered by Justice Younge in the High Court. The case concluded on January 16, 2023.

Annette Ferguson, Christopher Jones, Ganesh Mahipaul, Vinceroy Jordan, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, Sherod Duncan, Maureen Philadelphia, and Natasha Singh-Lewis are the opposition MPs who were suspended.

The court determined that Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, had the authority to impose the suspension and that the Parliamentary Privileges Committee had every right to recommend it.

On July 21, 2022, during the 48th sitting of the National Assembly, the House officially approved the report of the Committee of Privileges, which recommended that the eight parliamentarians be suspended for their involvement in desecrating the Speaker’s Mace on December 29, 2021.

The disgraceful incident occurred during the debate on the Natural Resources Fund Bill. Chaos broke out at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) at Liliendaal, Georgetown, when the Opposition MPs attempted to prevent Senior Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh from speaking during a sitting of the National Assembly.

During the commotion, MP Ferguson attempted to steal the Speaker’s Mace, and was joined by some of her colleagues.

Following the mayhem, a Motion tabled by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, was passed in the National Assembly in January 2022 for the eight elected officials to be referred to the Privileges Committee for their actions.

The Privileges Committee later presented a report that recommended that MPs Ferguson, Philadelphia and Jordan be suspended for six consecutive sittings for committing serious violations in removing the Parliamentary Mace from its rightful position.

The report also recommended that Sarabo-Halley be suspended for six consecutive sittings. It was recommended that Jones, Duncan, Singh-Lewis and Mahipaul be suspended from four consecutive sittings.

The suspended MPs later approached the court. In addition to the Attorney General, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir and the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, were named as defendants.