It’s difficult to get Adwoa Safo back to Parliament - John Boadu

Adwoa Safo absence affecting government’s business

Adwoa Safo did not seek permission from me to be absent, Speaker

E-Levy is yet to be considered

The General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, has revealed that efforts to get Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo back to the country to perform her parliamentary duties have not been successful.

This he says has become a matter of concern as it's affecting government’s business due to a hung parliament.

“…Just as Adwoa was occasionally brought in and this time I think she’s kept out far too long and all efforts to get her have proven futile, but I don’t think we’re at the end of the tunnel,” Asaaseradionline quoted John Boadu.

“We’re all concerned about making sure our government runs and considering how Parliament is split in the middle, any occasion that any of the MPs is absent is a cause for worry," he added

Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has refuted claims suggesting that Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya asked for permission to absent herself from the house.

According to him, it is not the duty of the Speaker to determine who is present or absent in the house as it has been captured in the Votes and Proceedings.

He denied granting any interview on the matter relating to Adwoa Safo.

“...I want it to be known by all that I have not granted any such interview anywhere. I have not said anything like that anywhere and the votes and proceedings of the house are so loud that if she is absent without permission for all those days that is on the votes and proceedings of the house. It is not the Speaker who determines who is present and who is absent,” Alban Bagbin said in Parliament

From 2017 to 2020, Sarah Adwoa Safo served as the Deputy Majority Leader but was replaced at the start of the second term of the NPP government, and rather offered a ministerial role at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

She has however been out of the country in the last few months for a number of reasons which include one that she is away on health grounds, the NPP Chairman, Freddie Blay, had earlier stated.

Adwoa Safo’s absence from parliament has been a major talking point also because it has been a blockade in the Majority successfully pushing for the passage of the controversial Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy).