The Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo, has finally returned to Parliament after almost a year of being out of the country.
The former Minister for Gender, Women and Children’s Affairs who was living in the USA had come under fire for her continuous absence from Parliament.
The former Deputy Majority Leader 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.
The committee had failed to achieve a consensus in its recommendations on whether absenting herself for more than the mandatory 15 days without permission warranted her seat being declared vacant.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, in October took strong exception to the Speaker of Parliament’s decision to direct the plenary to debate the fate of Adwoa Safo and two other legislators over absenteeism.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu maintained that the Speaker erred in referring the matter back to the house, explaining that the ruling flies in the face of the constitution and threatened to challenge the decision.
