Adwoa Safo’s absence: Something nasty has happened - A. B. A. Fuseini

Adwoa Safo takes leave of absence

E-Levy yet to be passed

Other MPs have been away from parliament for up to a year before - A. B. A. Fuseini claims

The Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu, A. B. A. Fuseini, has wondered how it is that the focus in parliament today is all directed at his colleague MP on the Majority side, Sarah Adwoa Safo, when she might not be the worst culprit for absentee members.

He explained that beyond the Dome-Kwabenya MP being a good friend of his, he cannot fathom why MPs in the past and even presently, who have stayed away from parliament for up to even a year, have never been targeted this ferociously.

“My first point in all fairness is that Adwoa Safo is a good friend and a colleague in parliament but I ask myself now that why only Adwoa Safo? I can tell you as a matter of record that Members of Parliament on the NPP side, a number of them who were at one point for a period of up to a year, away without permission: the former Member for West Akyem. I’m just giving you evidence of people who have overstayed, for which there have been no demands for action to be made.

“Even currently, names have come up: Honorable Kennedy Agyapong mentioned more than the two months or so. Talking about Henry Quartey and if you go through the records of proceedings which is the true reflection of attendance to the House, you’ll see all these things,” he said.

The outspoken MP was speaking on the JoyNews channel on Wednesday, February 23, 2022, and monitored by GhanaWeb when he made the comments.

A. B. A. Fuseini further explained that it beats his imagination that Sarah Adwoa Safo is being so targeted when it is clear it is only because this government is bent on passing the controversial Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy) at all cost.

“So, I ask myself, why only Adwoa Safo? Because it boils down to nothing but this desperate attempt to pass this obnoxious, insensitive and wicked E-Levy,” he said.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP also suggested that there could be more going on with respect to this Adwoa Safo saga that should be looked into because it is not ordinary for someone in the office of a public office to just vacate it for so long without cause.

“There is something nasty that has happened on the battlefield: it is ordinary for a Minister of State to desert her office? That is an issue of bad governance. It has nothing to do with the NPP party. Ghana as a state is distinguishable from the NPP as a political party. So, when you’re a Minister of State, you’re not a Minister of State for the NPP; you’re a Minister of State for the Republic of Ghana which encompasses other political parties,” he said.

The MP for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo, who is also the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has been away from the country and in essence, absent from parliament for months with many raising concerns about why that has become the case.

The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Freddie Blay, earlier said that he was aware that the MP had taken a leave of absence in order to attend to some health issues.