Sarah Adwoa Sarfo
The embattled Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo has written to the legislature requesting for leave extension of additional four weeks.
This is contained in a new letter, the MP is said to have addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, after the former MP for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak has filed a petition for the House to take action against Adwoa Safo and three other MPs who are said to have breached the 15-day rule.
The Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who revealed this on Neat Fm explained that he received a letter dated 28 February 2022 from the MP, who is also the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, seeking permission from the Speaker to absent herself from Parliament for four more weeks.
According to the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the letter was not addressed to him but the Speaker, adding that “I was only copied in the letter”.
The Majority Leader also noted that the reason Adwoa Safo was given the request is that her daughter is not well and going through physiotherapy from an ailment.
“What I can say now is that on Wednesday, she brought a letter, asking for four weeks extension. She explained that her injured child is still responding to treatment”.
He said the Speaker has not discussed the content of the said permission request with him.
“I cannot say whether she is okay herself or not since I am not there with her. I cannot say if the Speaker has agreed to the extension or not and I haven’t had any discussions with the Speaker too.”
He also corrected a statement attributed to First Deputy Speaker of Parliament and MP for the Bekwai, Joe Osei-Owusu to the effect that he (Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu) had indicated to him (Joe Osei-Owusu) in a conversation that Adwoa Safo had instructed that she should not be called but only sent text messages.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said there had never been any such instruction from the Dome Kwabenya MP.
“I think it was a wrong impression the First Deputy Speaker got in my interaction with him over Adwoa Safo’s absence from Parliament”.
Ms. Safo who has not been sighted in Parliament since the beginning of the year has courted the displeasure of the party in her constituency as well as most of her colleagues on the Majority side of the House.
The MP who is already on a leave of absence from her role as the Gender Minister, is said to be peeved over the reversal of her dismissal of the School Feeding boss, Gertrude Quashigah.
She’s said to be demanding reinstatement to her previous position on the Majority’s front bench as the Deputy Majority Leader, a position she held in the seventh Parliament.
BY Daniel Bampoe