Chief of Staff at the Office of the Speaker, Kofi Attor has landed in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia with a bunch of National Democratic Congress (NDC) members for the high profile IPU forum, Daily Guide can reported.
The 144th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly (IPU), a cross-border cooperation of parliaments is the second largest democratic forum in the world after the United Nations.
President Saber Hossain Chowdhury, chaired the program which has a total of 173 member states and 11 other associate members in the attendance.
However, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu was given invitation later after media exposure about the snubbed of the two deputies speakers.
Ghana’s Parliament was represented by Haruna Idrissu (Minority Leader), Ahmed Ibrahim (Deputy Minority Whip), Habib Iddrissu (Deputy Majority Whip), Patricia Appiagyei, MP Asokwa, Dzifa Abla Gomashie (MP for Ketu South), Kofi Attor (Office of the Speaker), James Dabaga (Office of the Speaker) and my goodself,”statement issued by the Majority Caucus in parliament said.
The leader of delegation, Osei-Mensah Bonsu delivered a keynote address which was centered on the Assembly’s theme – “Getting Zero: Mobilising Parliaments to act on Climate Change.”
He spoke on the existential threat posed by the menace of Climate Change to the lives of people and the environment in general. I further suggested in my address, the role we can play as various legislative arms across the globe in curbing this canker through implementing viable solutions and far reaching mmembers.
The Speaker assigned Kofi Attor and another NDC man to represent him at an international programme in Indonesia, a snub of his two deputies.
The continuous relegation of parliamentary staff and his two deputies to the background; the sidestepping of the two deputy speakers reinforces the growing animosity between the Speaker and his deputies.
Speaker Bagbin, who was in Dubai for about two weeks spending some hefty amount decided to choose Kofi Attor and James Dabaga, his office staff, over his two Deputy Speakers to represent him at the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference.
The conference is a high profile one for speakers and leadership of various parliaments. Mr. Bagbin had earlier denied using Kofi Attor, a former NDC MP for Ho Central, to represent him in parliamentary duties instead of delegating his deputies.
“The ‘NDC man’ in question, according to a release from the Office of the Speaker, is a former Member of Parliament, and currently works in the Speaker’s Secretariat as a Senior Advisor and undertakes duties assigned him by the Speaker.
“We wish to state that Hon. Kofi Attor is a former Member of Parliament, who currently works in the Speaker’s Secretariat as a Senior Advisor. The Speaker assigns responsibilities ⁶to him and the staff from time to time. In all these, he has never been assigned responsibility as deputy speaker and those who caused the publication should know this,” a statement from the Office of the Speaker in denial of disrespecting his two deputies and staff of Parliament said.
Contrary to the denial by the Speaker, that Kofi Attor is an ordinary advisor in his office, he is now at a high profile international conference in Indonesia. The two people are not parliamentary staff but part of the many NDC apparatchiks recruited by Speaker Bagbin upon his selection, and this is raising so much concern within certain circles of Parliament.
By Vincent Kubi