Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, has said he was surprised when he found out that he had been pencilled to be given awards for his contribution to democracy and service to community.

The awards are the Government Peace Award, Community Spirit Peace Award, Humanitarian and Service Peace Award and the Parliamentary Peace Award.

The laureate, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowl Kaleo and Former Majority Leader, received the awards in the form of trophies and citations from the Ghana Peace Awards, a civil society organization, at his office in Parliament House, after it had been announced last year by the organization.

Mr Bagbin, the longest serving MP in the Fourth Republic of Ghana, was praised by colleague legislators for being a bank of knowledge in parliamentary practice.

He thanked the organizers for instituting the awards, describing it as a “noble initiative”.

He said such awards would encourage stakeholders in Ghana’s forward march of democratic development, adding in an emotional tone that “I’m humbled by this awards and I am extremely grateful; and I want to assure all of you that I will continue to commit my everything to make sure that democracy succeeds in Ghana, and that the benefits of democracy will trickle down to the people.”

Mr Bagbin observed that though campaign activities leading to the 2016 elections were electrifying, Ghana came out praised globally as a result of peaceful electioneering processes.

“We believe that Civil Society Organizations, Ghanaians as a whole contributed to the development of this country,” he said.

Mr Bagbin said democracy has been so far been identified as the best system of governance that can give some fair assurance to everybody in the society that they matter, and that they are all equal and would benefit from the collective efforts of the country.

Rev Prof. Emmanuel Nash, Project Manager of Ghana Peace Awards said the awards were to celebrate and appreciate the culture of peace.

According to him the Ghana Peace Awards appreciates and recognizes people who have gone the extra mile in preventing and resolving conflicts in the country.