3 NPP MPs in trouble, Bagbin refers them to Privileges Committee
Rt Hon Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament has expressed his dissatisfaction with the absenteeism of Sarah Adwoa Sarfo, Henry Quartey and Kennedy Agyapong from the house and has referred them to the privileges committee for absenting themselves for over 15 sittings of the house.
The Speaker explained that the continued absence of the lawmakers without his permission amounts to a breach of the rules of the house.
Leading proceedings on the floor of Parliament, Alban Bagbin charged the committee to provide its report to the house two weeks after the House reconvenes from recess.
Meanwhile, a former lawmaker for the Kumbumgu Constituency, Ras Mubarak, had earlier petitioned the Speaker of Parliament to deal with the matter of absenteeism in the House.
He went as far as citing some of his former colleagues which include Dome-Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo; Henry Quartey, the MP for Ayawaso Central, and Ebenezer Kojo Kum, the MP for Ahanta West and Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, MP for Assin Central as MPs who he said had flouted provisions of Article 97(1)(c) of the Constitution and Parliament’s Standing Order 16(1) which frowns on Members absenting themselves for 15 sitting days without permission from the Speaker.
Article 97(1)(c) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that a Member of Parliament shall vacate his seat “if he is absent, without the permission in writing of the Speaker, and he is unable to offer a reasonable explanation to the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges from fifteen sittings of a meeting of Parliament during any period that Parliament has been summoned to meet and continues to meet.”
Ras Mubarak copied the leadership of both sides of the House in his petition. Mubarak said according to Parliament’s Hansard, four New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs have flouted the rule on absenteeism and should be made to appear before the Privileges Committee of the House.
