Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, has revealed that Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo, is being treated unfairly over accusations of absenting herself from sittings in parliament.
Mr Mubarak noted that the Dome-Kwabenya MP had followed due process in seeking a leave of absence from the Speaker in a bid to handle some personal issues. He explained that, however, the Majority Leader who received her application, refused to forward it to the Speaker.
The Minority Chief Whip then noted that this happened at the height of the E-levy debate on the floor of Parliament, a period where the Majority needed a full house in its bid to push the e-levy bill.
“I think there’s a lot of unfair treatment to the lady. I’m reliably informed that she wrote leave of absence and her leadership refused to recommend it to Speaker. She wrote a leave of absence and then she traveled citing her children and challenges. And her leadership, because they needed her at all cost, refused to recommend. So, she noticed along the line that she’s constantly being marked absent”.
Muntaka Mubarak
Adwoa Safo’s leave of absence application
Mr Mubarak emphasized that Adwoa Safo wrote a letter with another leave of absence directed to the Speaker to remind him that although she is supposed to seek permission from him, the rules of the House are such that, “I have to pass it through my leadership [and] I have noticed that my leadership have consistently refused to recommend my leave of absence, so I’m writing directly to you”.
Contrary to expectation, Mr Mubarak expressed that the Speaker instead of investigating the claims of the letter, sent it back to the Majority Leader. The Minority Chief Whip afterwards underscored that the Majority Leader simply opined that “I’m not aware” of the letter and based on that, the Speaker “refuses to grant her leave of absence”.
“With the greatest of respect to the office of Mr. Speaker, I think this is very unfair. If I make a claim, and you don’t use your good office to investigate that, but you refer my application back to the same people that have refused to grant my leave of absence, if I were Mr. Speaker, to be fair, I would have just minuted that Majority Leader/Majority Whip, can you recommend based on this complaint to me for her leave of absence to be granted?”
Muntaka Mubarak
Justifying his stance, the Miniority Chief Whip posited that Adwoa Safo had filed another leave of absence complaining about what her leadership did. Owing to this, Mr Mubarak insisted that to treat her fairly, the Speaker having knowledge of the matter should have recommended to the leadership of the Majority to “recommend for her leave of absence in order not to keep them on the blindside of what is happening”.
Prior to this, the Speaker of Parliament has referred three NPP MPs to the Privileges Committee after receiving a petition against them for absenting themselves from Parliament without permission for more than fifteen sittings. As a consequent, the Minority Chief Whip has filed a motion calling for the referral of three MPs, Sarah Adwoa Safo, Henry Quartey, and Kennedy Agyepong, to the Privileges Committee to be reversed. Contained in a memo to the Speaker of Parliament, the Minority Chief Whip, requested the House to revoke the Speaker’s decision.
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