Adwoa Safo’s removal can only be determined by Speaker, not party – Obiri Boahen

The Deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Obiri Boahen has implored the rank and file of the party not to gloat over calls to have the party’s Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya Sarah Adwoa Safo removed from Parliament.

According to him, the decision to have the embattled MP removed is an uphill task.

Mr. Obiri Boahen, a lawyer by profession, explained that the decision to have the sitting MP for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency and Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection removed is not as rosy as it seems.

He said the MP could only be removed by the Speaker of Parliament and nobody else.

There are calls from some NPP stalwarts for the removal of Ms. Safo for holding the party to ransom over the passage of the controversial E-levy.

But Mr. Boahen speaking to Kwame Obeng Sarkodie, host of Ghana Yensom morning show on Accra 100.5 FM, Wednesday, February 23, 2022, said, “per the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, it is only the Speaker of Parliament who can take a decision of having the MP removed in accordance with the tenets of Parliament.”

“No individual, let alone the party, can take such a decision of having the MP removed,” he added.

He said per the Supreme Court ruling on the J.H. Mensah case, Parliament is a master of its own rules.

“The law-making body is different from the law adjudication and law implementation body,” he clarified.

“Once the personality involved is a Minister, a decision can be taken to have her sacked as a Minister, but her status as MP has to be handled by Parliament. So for the Assin Central MP, Ken Agyapong, to say the embattled MP will be sacked, he has to petition the Majority Chief Whip through the Majority leader for the matter to be tabled at the Privileges Committee of Parliament,” he explained.

“As a party, we cannot take such a decision unless the Majority in Parliament writes to the party officially, and as I speak, there is no such petition before the party,” he noted.