Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin
The Speaker of Parliament Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin will be leaving the country again to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) for another medical review.
The Speaker has lately made Dubai his second home shuttling between Accra and the Arabian city for medical treatment where huge sums of money is carried along as well as long retinue of aides
Unconfirmed report suggested that the Speaker is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for tumor related ailment.
This will be Bagbin’s third trip to the UAE for medical review, within the last two months.
He was there twice in the last quarter of last year with his first absence in Parliament leading to chaotic scenes as an equal house violently disagreed on processes for the E-levy vote after the presentation of the budget.
His dashed out barely a day after he presided over Parliament’s chaotic budget debate, a development that saw the Members of the Majority side of Parliament staging a walkout during processes to approve the 2022 budget and the House’s subsequent rejection of same.
Mr. Bagbin was accompanied by his wife, Alice Adjua Yornas, Head of Parliamentary clinic, Dr. Prince Kofi Pambo, the Speaker’s Secretary and niece, and his aide.
Information available to DGN Online indicates that Bagbin will leave Accra on January 29, 2022 and might not return by the time the Electronic Transactions (E-levy) bill is relaid for consideration in the house, with a possibility to create another commotion in the House.
Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed-Muntaka Mubarak who disclosed the travel stated that “Everybody in leadership, unless you pretend not to know Speaker has to go for his review. Are you going to waste all the time until Speaker leaves for his review? Then you now turn again and say the Speaker is not willing to help the government. So far as I am concerned he is leaving this weekend.”
When he was asked whether his other colleagues did not know that, he responded: “That is why I am surprised, for them. How will he (Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu) say that he doesn’t know,” he questioned.
On December 21, 2021, Parliament adjourned its sitting to January 25, 2022, without passing the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy of 1.75%.
It came after the house reconvened that day following the abrupt suspension of sittings by the Second Deputy Speaker, Andrews Asiamah, after a fight broke out during the voting on the levy.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, prayed the sit-in Speaker, First Deputy Speaker, Joe Osei Owusu, to adjourn the house for cooler heads to prevail.
With the house virtually split on equal numbers the absence of the Speaker may trigger the previous rancorous conduct of the MPs.
By Vincent Kubi