The Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo has returned to the country after months of absence.
This follows the Speaker of Parliament’s ruling for the plenary to decide on the fate of the NPP legislator.
She has come under fire for her continuous absence from the country, with the House set to debate and decide in the coming days whether her seat should be declared vacant.
According to sources close to Adwoa Safo, the MP will resume her parliamentary duties following her return.
Adwoa Safo requested for leave of absence in 2021 to attend to personal issues but in a statement dated Wednesday, October 6, 2021, signed and issued by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr. Eugene Arhin, it was explained that Adwoa Safo’s leave was to have ended August 31, 2021 but was further extended indefinitely.
She was subsequently stripped of her responsibilities as Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection.
Efforts by Parliament’s Privileges Committee to get the legislator to give reasons for her continued absence from the House failed to yield any positive results.
She failed to appear before the committee to explain why she was absent for more than 15 sittings without prior approval of the Speaker. The committee was however divided over her fate. While the majority MPs on the committee were of the view that her seat should be declared vacant, MPs from the minority side held that the determination should be made by plenary.
The Speaker upheld the position of the minority much to the disappointment of the majority who have hinted of challenging the speaker’s ruling. The majority leader was of the view that once the privileges committee by a majority decision concluded that her seat should be vacant, the matter ends there.
SOURCE theghanaianvoice