The Honourable Member of Parliament (MP) for Chereponi, Mr. Jabanyite Samuel Abdulai is advocating for sanction against legislators who sit in their offices while proceedings are ongoing in the chamber.
According to him, attitude of absenteeism of some MPs is deliberate because, it has been stated clearly that MPs should be at the chamber by 10:00am irrespective of their activities in their various offices.
He lamented that “As to whether the provision of offices to MPs was wrong, this must be considered once again. Because when MPs did not have offices, they were always coming to the chamber in their numbers. Is it then good or bad to have offices as MPs? MPs have TVs in their offices which is connected to the chamber. Even in their offices they get to know what is going on in the chamber. Why should they be in their offices whiles proceedings are going on?
He noted that, “democracy does not mean you have freedom to do things anyhow, but democracy goes with respect and accountability to the people we represent. As Members of Parliament, we need to represent our constituencies well, it is part of the accountability I am talking about. MPs who refuse to appear in the chamber need to be sanctioned to serve as a deterrent”.
The Member of Parliament made this statement on Tuesday when few legislators were in the chamber in the morning for the commencement of business.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
