General News of Monday, 10 July 2017

Source: 3news.com

Adwoa Safo urged to apologise over Community Day SHS claims

Sarah Adwoa Safo [middle], Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency Sarah Adwoa Safo [middle], Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency

Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency, Sarah Adwoa Safo has been urged to do the honourable by apologizing for her claims over the building of a community day senior high school in her constituency.

In a video that recently went viral on social media, Ms Safo is heard telling some constituents that she was directly involved in the establishment of the school, Kwabenya Senior High School, though she was a member of the opposition then.

She told the gathering, in a meeting held at the School’s premises, that she had to write to the World Bank for the project. The Bank, she told her audience, only demanded a litigation-free land.

She spoke in local language Akan. But the Deputy Majority Leader has come under attack from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which initiated the projects across the country as part of its 2012 manifesto.

Commenting on the issue, Executive Director of the African Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) Dr Rasheed Draman said there is nothing wrong on the part of the Minister of State to apologise.

“I think as a leader of our House, if there is miscommunication, I don’t think there is anything wrong with coming out and apologizing,” he said on TV3’s Midday Live on Monday.

Dr Draman pointed out that clearly the MP may have committed a slip in her claims. He further pointed out that MPs are even not responsible for such projects though Ghanaian MPs appear to have digressed from their core mandate of making laws.

‘Blown out of proportion’

But an officer of the Dome-Kwabenya Constituency, Nana Nkrumah, said the issue has been blown out of proportion.

The Communications Officer said the lawyer was referring to her efforts in getting the project to the constituency and not owning it.

According to Nana Nkrumah, Ms Safo wrote to the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) for the lease of land for the project.

He said as a member of the Assembly, she felt part of getting the project to its location. He said the hullaballoo had been generated by the NDC.