Kennedy Agyapong of Assin Central and Henry Quartey of Ayawaso Central won’t lose their seats despite missing more than 15 straight House sessions, according to the Parliament’s Privileges Committee.
According to a citinewsroom.com article, the committee did not make a conclusion regarding Sarah Adwoa Safo, a colleague and the MP (Member of Parliament) for Dome Kwabenya, and instead left her fate up to the full House.
Henry Boakye-Yiadom, an Akwatia MP and member of the Privileges Committee, revealed this in an interview with Citi TV. He said the committee decided by a vote of 15 to 12 that Agyapong and Quartey’s justifications for skipping class without permission were sufficient and that they shouldn’t lose their seats.
Adwoa Safo failed to appear before the committee to give a justification for her absence from the House since December 2021, he continued, which prevented the committee from making a decision on her.
“With Kennedy Agyapong, there were 15 votes against 12, likewise Henry Quartey. In Adwoa Safo’s case, the Chair of the committee said since she had never appeared before us, we did not vote. We have thus decided to hand her over to Parliament to determine her fate,” he said.
The decision of the committee will, however, be presented to the plenary for approval.
Ras Mubarak, a former member of parliament, requested that the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, refer the three New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs to the House’s Privileges Committee in order to have them removed for missing more than 15 consecutive sessions during the first session of the eighth Parliament.