The report that United States (US) officials have filed papers seeking the extradition of former deputy minister of Finance, Grace Coleman in connection with the case in which her daughter was sentenced to five years in prison by a US federal judge has continued to draw sympathy - at least from her colleagues in parliament.

Two members of the House, John Mahama and Madam Hawa Yakubu, who have spoken publicly on the former minister’s indictment barely two weeks after her daughter was sentenced, said the government could still have a window of negotiation opened with the US government to prevent her extradition.

Although Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communications Director and its Member of Parliament (MP) for Bole and Madam Yakubu, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Bawku Central MP, believe that the law should take its course, they think the issue of Coleman’s extradition should be handled politically.

“I think the issue should be handled politically because we have some form of working understanding with the political leadership of the US,” Madam Yakubu told The Chronicle last Friday.

Mr. Mahama spoke on Joy FM, a local radio station, whilst Madam Yakubu spoke with The Chronicle in an interview.

Grace Coleman, MP for Effiduase-Asokore, in the Ashanti Region, has been charged with forced labor, by a US federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Her daughter, Barbara Coleman-Blackwell, was sentenced for illegally carrying a 44-year-old Ghanaian woman, Margaret Owusuwaah, to the US and forcing her to work as a nanny and domestic servant without pay.

Barbara, a 33 year-old accountant with permanent US resident status, will be deported to Ghana once she finishes her sentence. She was convicted of federal felony.

Barbara’s husband, Kenneth Blackwell, a 37-year-old US citizen, who suffered serious injuries in a car accident and is unable to work, according to attorneys, was also sentenced to six months of home detention and three years’ probation.

But Madam Yakubu thinks the case has not been investigated properly.

According to her, Owusuwaah was prompted to make up her story to the US authorities to get a stay after Coleman made an attempt to get her back to Ghana after she had overstayed.

“This is a case where everybody knows that when you (African) go abroad, people tell all sorts of flimsy lies to be able to justify their stay. “Oh, I am being harassed, I am this, and I am being maltreated,” the Iron Lady said.

“I was in Europe and had the occasion to interpret for some of those people who couldn’t speak English and they will tell you in their language ‘this one I am just saying it so that I can get a stay’ and things like that.”

Hawa expressed sympathy for Coleman, saying “for this lady (Owusuwaah) to go and damage somebody of the calibre of Coleman is very very depressing.”

“The fact that she went and claimed that she was being maltreated has now earned her the privilege of getting a green card, which she never would have had; she now has the advantage of getting a flat, which she never would have gotten, just because she has generated some false sentiment against Coleman whose daughter is now serving because they tried to help her.”

Madam Yakubu said there was nothing wrong in Coleman recommending Owusuwaah to the US Embassy in Accra because this was done everywhere. Her only fear was that they (MPs) would now stop recommending people, even though it is part of their duty to help their constituents to also travel and get exposure but would now be afraid to do so.

On the issue of immunity for MPs and whether it would cover Coleman, Hawa said the immunity clause did not place an MP above the law.

She said this was a case that called for a united front among members of the House because anyone of them could fall victim to it.

Coleman’s extradition is expected to take centre stage in the House when it resumes today, both MPs said.