Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has again left the fate of Dome Kwabenya MP Sarah Adwoa Safo and two others to the house.
The outspoken legislator, who was sacked from her position as Gender Minister sometime in July this year, will continue to represent the Dome Kwabenya constituents until the house decides on what to do.
Ayawaso Central MP Henry Quartey and Assin Central MP Ken Ohene Agyapong will also remain at post till the house decides on the recommendations by the Privileges Committee.
This was contained in the Speaker’s long-awaited ruling on Wednesday (October 26, 2022).
“What the table office does in trying to compute days that a member absents himself is not final. It’s for the committee to investigate and establish the facts. Again, the fact that the committee says this reason is reasonable doesn’t make it final, and the fact the committee says the reason is not reasonable is not also final.
“It’s for the house to go through it before the ruling is made. The mandate given to an MP, thus representation, is so crucial that it cannot be left to the subjective view of any person or group of people but the whole house,” he explained.
In his ruling, Mr Bagbin said, “the preliminary objection for the admissibility of the report is hereby dismissed in limine”.
The Speaker also mentioned that the motion would be put before the house for members to continue to deliberate on the matter at hand and take a final decision.
The ruling was received with mixed reactions, with the majority side indicating that they were not pleased.
Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who disagreed with the ruling, said the Speaker was wrong in his understanding of the law.
“I do not agree with the ruling which you characterised as an informed one. Mr Speaker, you could have saved us a lot of time and also saved us from the torturous journey. I must state that I didn’t know where you are taking this house.
“Mr Speaker, by way of conclusion, you said the house should go through the recommendations by the committee in order to make a determination. I totally disagree with the unfortunate ruling. I think it doesn’t sit with the constitution and with your own earlier statement that you made in this house relating to this same issue — very inconsistent,” he added.
It will be recalled that the Speaker of Parliament, on July 28, 2022, deferred the ruling on the Dome Kwabenya MP Sarah Adwoa Safo, over absenteeism, to a later date.
Mr. Bagbin was expected to decide whether or not the embattled MP should be maintained after missing 15 parliamentary sittings.
Background
The issue of absenteeism came to light after a former Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak, petitioned the Speaker in March 2022.
Mr. Mubarak cited four MPs: Dome Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo; Ayawaso Central MP, Henry Quartey; MP for Ahanta West, Ebenezer Kojo Kum; and Assin Central MP, Ken Ohene Agyapong.
He said the MPs had flouted provisions of Article 97 (1) (c) of the Constitution and Parliament’s Standing Order 16 (1), which frowns on members absenting themselves for 15 sitting days without permission from the Speaker.
Per Article 97(1)(c) of the 1992 Constitution, a Member of Parliament shall vacate his seat “if he is absent, without the permission in writing of the Speaker, and he is unable to offer a reasonable explanation to the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges from fifteen sittings of a meeting of Parliament during any period that Parliament has been summoned to meet and continues to meet.”
Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin subsequently referred the three MPs to the Privileges Committee.
While Kennedy Agyapong and Henry Quartey appeared before the committee and attributed their absence to ill health, Adwoa Safo failed to honour the summons.
Adwoa Safo’s reasons for absence
In an earlier interview, the sector minister said she was not served to appear for a probe on absenteeism.
The legislator, who has been criticized for abandoning her ministry and parliamentary duties, says no information has officially reached her desk.
“I have served in parliament for over 12 years and a practising lawyer for 18 years. I know the rules, but as I sit here, I have not been served…No official document has come to me.
“I don’t have to be served through the media. I have to be served personally, and I don’t have to be served through third parties,” she said.
The Gender Minister said she was currently in the United States attending to pressing family issues and would return after taking care of her sick son.
“As you can see, I am here in the United States taking care of my son, and I don’t know how I am supposed to appear before the committee. If the Speaker says you have been summoned to the Privileges Committee, the committee then sets its own modalities on when we are to appear, but I don’t have any information on that,” she said in an interview on Joy News on Thursday, 26 May 2022.
She insisted she would only return home when her son was declared fit and healthy.
Committee’s Report
On 13 July 2022, Parliament’s Privileges Committee, after completing its probe, decided to let the entire house determine the fate of Ms Safo.
The committee took the decision after the legislator, on three different occasions, failed to honour a zoom invitation from the committee to explain her absence from parliament.
In the case of the other absentees, the committee, by a 15-12 majority decision, determined that the excuse from Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong and Ayawaso Central MP Henry Quartey is tenable and, thus, they should not lose their seats.
“With Kennedy Agyapong, there were 15 votes against 12, likewise Henry Quartey. In Adwoa Safo’s case, the chair of the committee said since she had never appeared before us, we did not vote. We have thus decided to hand her over to parliament to determine her fate,” a member of the committee and MP for Akwatia, Henry Boakye-Yiadom, revealed.