Chairman of the Privileges Committee, Mr Joseph Osei Owusu, has reiterated his earlier stance that the Dome Kwabenya Constituency must be declared vacant despite the resistance by the minority members on the committee.
According to him, it is a constitutional imperative for the seat of Dome Kwabenya Constituency which is been occupied by the absentee Member of Parliament (MP), Madam Sarah Adwoa Safo, to be declared vacant once she failed to appear before the privileges committee.
Mr Osei Owusu, who doubles as the First Deputy Speaker and MP for Bekwai, explained in an interview that the vacancy is automatic once the MP, despite several opportunities afforded her, failed to appear before the committee to explain why she was absent for more than 15 consecutive sittings.
“The words of the Constitution are clear. If you are absent for 15 sittings, and you did not seek permission from Mr Speaker to be absent then you should vacate your seat unless you explain to the Privileges Committee to their satisfaction and the explanation is reasonable,” he said.
The Minority members on the committee on Friday, July 15, 2022, at a press conference said nowhere in their meetings came to an agreement that the Dome Kwabenya Constituency seat be declared vacant.
According to the Ranking Member of the committee, Mr George Kwaku Ricketts-Hagan, the Chairman of the Privileges Committee has no locus to declare any seat vacant.
“The sole authority to declare the Dome Kwabenya Constituency seat vacant is the Speaker of Parliament, the Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and not the chairperson of the committee” he added.
The group fought off the chairman’s position insisting that since the Dome Kwabenya MP had not been heard, her seat could not be declared vacant.
But Mr Osei Owusu says it cannot be argued that the MP was not heard when they offered her all the opportunities to explain.
He explains that the onus is on the MP to avail herself not the committee to chase her.
“It is the responsibility, the onus is on the Honourable member to offer an application. So first that responsibility is on the honourable member who has been absent for 15 days without permission from Mr Speaker. In the case of the 3 Members of Parliament if the Speaker looks through the record and determines that these people have been absent for 15 days or more and they did not seek permission from me.
“We used all the rules and all the procedures and went beyond those procedures which Parliament said we should reach her. We went beyond that and advertised at places where we know she’s active on Social. So whatever effort Parliament ought to make to offer her the facility to explain herself has been done. It is her choice whether to discharge that responsibility placed on her to offer her a reasonable explanation or not. If she chooses not to offer any explanation then the law should apply,” he added.
The Dome Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo, who doubles as the Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, is currently in the United States.
