Sarah Adwoa Safo
Scores of members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) have taken to social media to blast the Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency, Sarah Adwoa Safo, over her recent unreserved apology to the party.
Sarah Adwoa Safo on Thursday expressed her remorse in a two-minute video address to the nation on her Facebook page, urging all her constituents to forgive her actions specifically to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, for her recent conduct.
In 2022, Adwoa Safo faced the Privileges Committee of Parliament after being absent from the house for over a year.
The status of her seat became a point of contention, with fellow Majority members advocating for it to be declared vacant, while the opposition to National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs supporters her.
As of now, the Speaker has yet to make a definitive ruling based on the Committee’s report. Upon her return to Ghana from the United States of America, the former Minister of Procurement stated her intentions to participate in the party’s primaries for the 2024 elections.
Some members of the NPP accused her of sabotaging the government for her persistent absence from Parliament.
For instance, the MP for New Juaben South, Michael Okyere Baafi blamed her for making the work of the government in Parliament difficult.
The MP for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong also revealed that the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare gave him GH¢120,000 to be deposited into the bank account of Adwoa Safo for her to attend to Parliamentary duties to work for the government.
“The Chief of Staff called me and I went, I swear my mother’s grave, Chief of Staff gave me GH¢120,000 and deposited it into Adwoa Safo’s Fidelity Bank account. I took the money there into the Fidelity Account, ask her personal assistant if what I am saying is not the truth,” a furious Kennedy Agyapong said.
He added “Now we are in opposition, the way Adwoa Safo is treating the party, it is clearly showing that we are in opposition and this shouldn’t be tolerated at all,” he told Asaase Radio on Tuesday, February 22, 2022.
However, after her apology, scores of the party members on social media and radio phone-in segment programmes expressed disappointment in her.
However, the Dome Kwabenya Constituency Secretary of the party, Theophilus Ansah Larbi in response urged Sarah Adwoa Safo to direct her apology to persons on the social media platform, Tiktok.
Theophilus Ansah Larbi said ‘’We don’t have a problem with Hon. Adwoa Safo, nobody has accused her of anything. If she thinks she’s offended someone or the party in some way that she’s not ready to talk about but she’s apologizing for that, then that’s fine.
He stated “She’s a Tiktok MP, so if she has any apology, she should render it to people on Tiktok because that’s where she was talking and making videos at the time the party needed him most in Parliament to do government business. Even upon her arrival in Ghana from the USA, she did not accord us [constituency executives] any respect’’.
‘’All we heard was that she was going around meeting polling station executives. We cannot stop her from contesting again as we know she wants to. We will act on what the party people in the constituency want. If delegates re-elect her, we’ll support her, if the party also elects another person, we’ll support that candidate to win the 2024 election and retain the seat.”
They also blasted her by calling on the party members to vote again for her in the upcoming Parliamentary primaries.
Facebook Post
In some of the posts cited by DGN Online on Facebook, some of the party members expressed that ‘’Adwoa Safo claims her misconduct was not deliberate and cites personal issues as the cause. But that begs the question – where was this explanation for the past year as Ghanaians demanded answers? She ignored repeated calls to return to duty and face the consequences of her actions’’.
The Poster noted that ‘’Now she comes forward only because the heat has intensified and she probably has plans for re-election, after escaping calls for her to be officially removed from Parliament’’.
Another one said ‘’It seems her supposed repentance is motivated more by self-preservation than genuine remorse. Even more bizarre is the fact that she could spend time on TikTok but couldn’t get time for Ghanaians to explain herself like she claims to have done now’’.
‘’She snubbed her parliamentary responsibilities for months on end with no care for how her absence impacted governance—her own party’s. She did not seem concerned about letting down her constituents who elected her’’.
‘’If her apology was sincere, the honorable thing for Adwoa Safo to do now would be to quit politics. Ghanaians will not so easily forget how she treated the duties of public service with such contempt’’.
‘’We should not accept empty words after the damage is already done. Adwoa Safo has proven she cannot be trusted to serve the people. It’s time for her to take her final bow from politics and make room for representatives who will show up for work every day. Only a full exit can even begin to make amends’’.
Another added that ‘’Her long overdue ‘apology’ changes nothing. The only acceptable response is for her to exit the political stage for good.
Ghanaians deserve better than representatives who treat their mandates as optional’’.
‘’So Sarah Adwoa Safo, with all due respect to her honorable ship, saw the need to apologize to her party executives and her NPP folks, with a touch of Irish Irish slanging, but never felt the need to render same to the people in her constituency for the gross disregard of the mandate reposed in her as their constituency representative in parliament?’’. Another Poster added.
-BY Daniel Bampoe