A former Chairman of the constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ben Abdallah Banda, has stated that he disagrees with the position of the Minority in Parliament over their stance on the privilege’s committee on Hon. Sarah Adwoa Safo’s fate.
This comes after the minority caucus had stated that the privilege’s committee must give Adwoa Safo a fair hearing on her long absence before their final decision.
Speaking on Movement In The Morning Show, the former lawmaker told Kwaku Dawuro that “according to the privilege committee’s report on Adwoa Safo’s fate, all attempts to serve her with an invitation to appear before the committee have proven futile. It was even published in Daily Graphic and Daily Guide, It was given to her personal assistant and a copy sent to her office in Parliament- the privilege’s committee has taken all these steps to get her served and she still refused to appear before the committee. When a matter is sent to court and you are called to defend yourself but you don’t appear, the court rules in your absence”.
“So if the privilege’s committee went ahead to give trial to the matter in her absence, then it’s in the right direction because the committee cannot wait till she’s satisfied to appear before them. Therefore the privilege’s committee did the right thing”, he added.
This comes after the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin on May 4 referred Hon. Sarah Adwoa Safo, Member of Parliament (MP) Dome-Kwabenya; Mr. Henry Quartey, MP Ayawaso Central and Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, MP Assin Central to the Privileges Committee for absenting themselves from 15 sittings of the House without his permission.
But Adwoa Safo is yet to appear before the committee after the other two had explained to the committee reasons for absenting themselves.
Parliament was expected to rule on the future of Dome-Kwabenya MP, Adwoa Safo on Thursday, July 28, 2022.
But after hearing arguments on both sides of the house, Speaker Alban Bagbin decided to defer the matter, to give him ample time to determine the MP’s fate.
This, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin said will afford him the opportunity to deliver a more detailed ruling.