Mr. Bagbin, on July 28, 2022, deferred for further study a decision on Adwoa Safo’s fate regarding her absence from the sittings of the House for more than 15 days without written approval from him, as well as two other MPs who were hauled before the Privileges Committee.
The committee, already by a majority decision, has recommended for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP’s seat to be declared vacant, intimating, “the Dome-Kwabenya seat is automatically vacant by operation of law,” having failed to appear before it to explain why she was absent.
The committee said by the provisions of Article 97 (1) (c) of the 1992 Constitution, the onus was on Sarah Adwoa Safo to provide a reasonable explanation to the Privileges Committee why she shall not vacate her seat, for having absented herself for 42 sittings of a parliamentary session, but the MP failed to take advantage of the numerous opportunities and facilities offered her to provide reasonable explanation.
The Majority Leader, whose side has suffered the blunt of Adwoa Safo’s continuous absence in the House, said yesterday on the floor of the House, “We can only wait for the ruling, which I want to believe would be very erudite, Mr. Speaker.”
He raised a preliminary objection in respect of the motion for the House to adopt the report of the Committee of Privileges on the three MPs cited as having breached Article 97.
Before Parliament went on recess in July, Speaker Alban Bagbin deferred his ruling on whether the Dome-Kwabenya seat should be declared vacant or not following her failure to honour a meeting by the Privileges Committee on her continuous absence from Parliament.
He gave indication that he would give a written ruling on the matter today to determine how the House will handle the committee’s report.
Adwoa Safo is one of the three MPs who were referred to the Privileges Committee for being absent from parliamentary duties without any reason, beyond the permissible period.
Even though the two other MPs, Kennedy Agyapong, MP for Assin Central, and Henry Quartey, MP for Ayawaso West, appeared before the committee, the Dome-Kwabenya legislator failed to honour the summons.