The Ghanaian Times reported yesterday that the Privileges Committee of Parliament has caused to be published a summons to the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo, to appear before it on July 6, 2022.
The paper, however, quoted Adwoa Safo as saying on Joy FM that, “I am not aware of such an invitation to appear before the committee. I don’t know that I have been invited. I have to be served.”
But, Ms. Kate Addo, Director, Public Affairs, Parliament, who issued a statement to announce the invitation through newspaper publications, said all efforts to reach the MP to honour the invitation of the Committee had been fruitless.
“The Committee has employed all available means, both official and unofficial, to serve the Member with invitation letter, including sending the invitation letter to her office and pigeonhole in Parliament, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, where she superintended as Sector Minister, her official email addresses, known social media handles, and through her personal assistant,” Kate lamented.
It is instructive to note that the issue of Adwoa Safo absenting herself from Parliament started a year or so ago, and still there is no solution in sight. Even when the party she represents in the august House, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), wanted her badly to vote on the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) Bill, she turned her back on it.
And from that time up to date, she is reportedly sojourning in the United States of America and has refused to come down to perform her Parliamentary duties. The Chronicle, therefore, supports one hundred percent the move being made by the Privileges Committee to question the Legislator as to why she had been absenting herself from the performance of her Parliamentary duties.
If it had been reported that Adwoa Safo was on sick leave and that she would return to the country when her condition improves, nobody would have raised a finger. But, in this case, the Dome-Kwabenya MP is always seen on social media enjoying herself in the States. Clearly, some of the things she does on social media make us believe that her so-called sickness should not be part of the equation.
The Chronicle suggests that if after the publication of the invitation in the print media, Ms. Adwoa Safo still fails to avail herself to the Privileges Committee, payment of her emoluments, if not already suspended, should immediately be suspended. If this does not push her to report to work, then she should be sacked and her seat declared vacant.
In our opinion, the people of Dome-Kwabenya did not get the vote for her to stay in far away US. Parliament must set an example by declaring the seat vacant to serve as a deterrent to MPs who may think of following her bad example in future.
