Calls made for Dome Kwabenya MP’s seat to be declared vacant
Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has expressed bewilderment at government's inaction over the continuous absence of the Member of Parliament for Dome Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo.
Sarah Adwoa Safo’s absence from parliament has become a major topic of discussion over the past weeks.
She was granted an extended leave somewhere last year and has only showed up in the chamber of parliament once in December 2021.
Following the controversy over here absence, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa speaking on the February 26, 2022, edition of Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, wondered why the government and the leadership of parliament have failed to relieve the MP who doubles as Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection from her positions as MP and minister.
“I have been wondering what makes the Honourable Adwoa Safo so powerful, so untouchable. I have never seen that a minister of state can be absent for this long, almost a year absent. She can’t be fired? What does Adwoa Safo know? What do they fear that she will say, that she will spill the beans that they can’t take action? The president cannot even fire her from her ministerial position,” the North Tongu MP said.
Within the New Patriotic Party which the Dome Kwabenya MP is a member, she has been accused of deliberately missing parliament to sabotage government business.
Amidst the allegations, it has been suggested that her seat be declared vacant for a by-election to be held in her constituency.
However, Mr Ablakwa who has tagged the call for Adwoa Safo’s seat to be declared vacant as discriminatory maintained that two other MPs are equally affected by the provision of the law that bars an MP from being absent from the house without permission.
“On the matter of Article 97.1 (C), I have stated clearly that we don’t have upon us one by-election. If you go to the votes and proceedings... this is the grill on absenteeism. There are two other members of parliament, the Honourable Kennedy Agyapong, 18 working days, and the Honourable Henry Quartey, 18 working days absent without permission if you go through it. Some of us are going to insist, the rule must be applied across board fairly. There must be no discrimination,” he said.
