Muntaka Mubarak, the Minority Chief Whip, claims that the Speaker and the Majority Leader are treating Sarah Adwoa Safo, the Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, unfairly in reference to her referral to the Privileges Committee.
According to him, the MP followed proper procedure in seeking a leave of absence from the Speaker before departing the country to deal with personal matters in the United States of America.
However, after receiving her application, the Majority Leader refused to submit it to the Speaker.
This was at the height of the E-levy discussion on the floor of Parliament, and the Majority, as expected, need a full house to pass the bill owing to the gravity of the issue.
Muntaka Mubarak told Evans Mensah on JoyNews' PM Express, "I think there's a lot of unfair treatment to the lady." I have it on good authority that she requested a leave of absence and that her leadership declined to recommend it to Speaker."
"She wrote a leave of absence and then she traveled, citing her children and hardships," he disclosed. And her superiors refused to endorse her because they needed her at all costs, therefore she saw that she was regularly recorded absent."
"So now she wrote another leave of absence letter to Mr. Speaker, reminding him that I'm expected to get permission from you, but the rules of this house are such that, as he mentioned today, I have no choice."
However, instead of doing what Muntaka Mubarak anticipated the Speaker to do in this case, which was to investigate the letter's assertions, the Speaker returned the letter to the Majority Leader.
"And the Majority Leader simply says, 'I'm not aware,' and the Speaker refuses to grant her leave of absence based on that." With all due respect to Mr. Speaker's office, I believe this is quite unfair."
"If I make a claim and you don't use your good office to examine it instead of referring my application back to the same individuals who refused to give my leave of absence, if I were Mr. Speaker, I would have just minuted it," he remarked.