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Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin refused a request by Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo, in respect of her extended absence from the House to deal with family issues.

According to the Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, the MP wrote to the Speaker formally earlier this year when news of her absence without permission became topical.

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told Accra-based Joy News channel, that Bagbin had rejected the request on procedural grounds, among others stating that the MP needed to be present in person to apply for permission.

“My information was that even last Tuesday (March 29), the Speaker was going to make a pronouncement on it in the House but I think the circumstances prevented him from so doing,” he stated.

On the matter of the absentee MP’s request to extend her leave of absence, he said: “Well, she requested from the Speaker to be given four more weeks to be absent. The four weeks I guess, is ending on Friday. It wasn’t granted.

“The Speaker told me that he had not granted that because you need to be here to make the request, but this was submitted from outside, and even the first one, the first one that’s where she didn’t make a request from the Speaker. So, the Speaker said he wasn’t going to accommodate that,” the Majority Leader added.

He also hinted of Adwoa Safo being referred to the Privileges Committee of Parliament for breaching rules of attending to the House.

On April 5, 2022; Speaker Bagbin duly referred her and two other MPs on the Majority side to the said committee, the two others being Kennedy Agyapong (Assin Central) and Henry Quartey (Ayawaso Central.)

Speaker Bagbin’s ruling in terms of referring the trio to the Privileges Committee was, however, vehemently opposed by Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, who cited procedural challenges with how the Speaker went about the matter.

He has stated that he will file a substantive motion to challenge the Speaker’s ruling.

Adwoa Safo’s absence in Parliament has generated a lot of chatter in the political space because of the impact that it has had on Parliamentary business. At least five NPP MPs openly spoke about how her absence is affecting the conduct of government business in Parliament.