Sarah Adwoa Safo
Absentee Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo will be joining her colleagues in the House in the coming weeks barring any last minute changes.
The former minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection has reportedly returned to the country after months of absence, per a report carried by Citi News, attributing it to sources close to the embattled MP.
It was highly anticipated on the agenda of the ruling of the Speaker of Parliament on whether or not the Dome-Kwabenya seat should be declared vacant.
The Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, deferred ruling on the matter on July 28 when the House went on recess after the Majority and Minority caucuses disagreed with the Privileges Committee when it recommended, by a split decision, that the seat be declared vacant.
“The issue is both substantive and procedural law. I need time to submit to this House a reasoned written ruling. I cannot in a haste of today give you the ruling,” the Speaker had ruled.
The Majority Caucus in Parliament is poised to challenge Speaker Bagbin’s ruling on the report of the Privileges Committee on absenteeism in Parliament.
The Privileges Committee report had earlier maintained that the seat for Dome Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo be declared vacant for her absent in the House.
But Alban Bagbin last Wednesday ruled that the decision by the Privileges Committee was not final, saying that the report of the Committee must be placed before the whole House for a decision to be made.
The embattled lawmaker belonging to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) requested for leave of absence in 2021 to attend to personal issues.
A statement dated Wednesday, October 6, 2021, signed and issued by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, explained that Adwoa Safo’s leave was to have ended August 31, 2021 but was further extended indefinitely.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo subsequently sacked her as the Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection.
Parliament reconvened October 25, 2022 to commence the Third Meeting of the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.
The House is expected to, among other things, approve the budget for the 2023 fiscal year.
Other activities lined up in the course of the meeting include the presentation of 66 Bills.
These include the Affirmative Action Bill, 2022, Ghana Housing Authority Bill, 2022, Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Small Scale Mining Bill, 2022, and the Petroleum Revenue Management (Amendment) Bill, 2022.
Work on eleven bills before the various committees of the House would continue including the Armed Forces (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values, Bill, 2022, Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and the Intestate Succession Bill, 2022.
By Vincent Kubi