Executive Director for Parliamentary Network Africa, Sammy Obeng, has revealed that he expects the privileges committee of parliament to discuss and make final decisions on the case of embattled Dome-Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwo Safo, over her absenteeism in parliament.
According to him, once the report has been laid in parliament, it suggests it is the final report from the committee which per the normal process, it has to be laid. He indicated that it usually takes a day or two for the report to be debated on and its adoption concluded.
Mr Obeng explained that because parliament is expected to go on recess in a matter of days, per the order paper of parliament, it should be easy to know whether the “report will be taken today or tomorrow” because on a particular day’s order paper there’s a provisional order paper to give an indication of what is likely to happen the next day.
“But we know that during last days sittings like this, there are usually addendums that come to the order paper. But it’s my expectation that the committee’s report will be discussed and a decision will be taken on the matter before the house goes on recess. It will be completely unacceptable if the house does not conclude on this subject matter before it’s long break because the long break is expected to span up to about October. I don’t think that a referral that the committee is late on should be delayed any further.”
Sammy Obeng
Commenting on the majority’s decision on the privileges committee to push for Adwoa Safo’s seat to be declared vacant, Mr Obeng stated that he will be “particularly scandalised if there is any lesser repercussion” on the pathway that the MP for Dome-Kwabenya had taken the privileges committee and perhaps the entire Ghana through.
“I think it is important to serve notice that organisations like ours will not take these kinds of situations lightly because we need not set a precedent that would come back to hurt us when it comes to MPs attendance and absenteeism in parliament.”
Sammy Obeng
Minority disagrees with privileges committee report
The Executive Director of Parliamentary Network Africa expressed that the minority’s disagreement to the report is to be expected. He indicated that he isn’t certain that at this stage there is still disagreement on the laid report.
“Again, I heard about the disagreement from the minority side at the stage when the chairman of the committee spoke… I will be particularly surprised if at this point if there was disagreement on the report that has been laid because to have a report laid, the various sides of the committee, at least the leadership, would have seen the report that the committee has done and would have vetted it and agreed that this is what we want to be communicated to the house…”
Sammy Obeng
It will be recalled that the Privileges Committee of Parliament on July 26, 2022, delivered a split decision on the fate of Dome-Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo. The committee failed to achieve a consensus in its recommendations on whether absenting herself for more than the mandatory 15 days without permission warrants her seat being declared vacant.
The Majority wants the seat declared vacant without delay in line with stated constitutional provisions. It maintains that Sarah Adwoa Safo failed to take advantage of the numerous opportunities to explain her absence without leave.
The Majority MPs on the committee cited Article 97 (1) (c) of the 1992 Constitution and the Court of Appeal decision in the case of Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare v the Attorney General.
The Minority MPs on the committee, however, argued that according to the principle of natural justice, the seat should not be declared vacant because Adwoa Safo did not provide her side of the issue to the committee.
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