These unhappy Ghanaians include a women’s group in Osino in the Eastern region who have issued a statement demanding an apology to one of the most respected parliamentarians in the history of the fourth republic.
“Anybody who understands our politics knows that the NPP tabloid which attacked the Speaker did so in parochial service to their party and government which Alban Bagbin is defending the country’s democracy.
“As the people of Ghana on whose behalf the Speaker is fighting, we demand an unqualified apology over the smear campaign that this NPP tabloid is prosecuting against the people’s Speaker”, the statement said.
It was signed by Madam Emelia Darkwah, a respected social activist of Osino and Madam Adwoa Stella, a social advocate, also of Osino in the Eastern region.
According to their statement, “the current dynamics of politics which makes the Speaker of Parliament the only ally that the people has means that such vicious and baseless attacks on him are no different from attacks on the people of the country”.
The attacks in question have been in the form of a paper war that a pro-government tabloid has started against the Speaker of Parliament. As part of a choreography of vicious publications, the tabloid has claimed that the Rt. Hon. Speaker has since assuming the speakership, spent some Ghc1.1 million on travels for medical care in Dubai.
The paper has claimed that the bills ramped up because the Speaker would often travel with large entourages even though the same paper claims the highest number of people the Speaker has traveled with is six (6).
According to the concerned women of Osino, the publication, “is preposterous to say the least, coming from a paper which is the political mouthpiece of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's government which has been wasting more money than any other in the history of the country”.
Their statement asked, “how come this pro-government tabloid is not speaking about the travels of the president who has abandoned the presidential jet and is flying in expensive private jets? And how about the Chief Justice, doesn’t the head of the Judiciary also travel? So why the pick on the Speaker?
We know why; because the Speaker is resisting the moves to subvert the constitution and force some taxes on us”.
According to the women, “we are not against any of the heads of the three arms of state traveling, but when a media house decides to pick on only one, then it becomes a problem”.
It pointed out that Alban Bagbin is a man of tested honesty and integrity and that the attempt to soil his reputation for political point scoring “is shameful to say the least”.
It demanded that the tabloid apologize “so that other news media affiliated to other parties do not get cause to also attack other heads of arms of government. As it were, we are already having enough problems as a country without the unnecessary dirty politics that lead us to nowhere”.
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Alban Bagbin - Speaker of Parliament