Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has strongly denied allegations made by former special prosecutor Martin Amidu, claiming that the Speaker had a secret meeting with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in Dubai in 2021, prior to the rejection of the 2022 budget.
According to a statement from the Office of the Speaker, “The said publication is false, baseless, and unfounded, and should be treated with the contempt it deserves.”
The statement also called on Mr Amidu to retract his statements and issue an apology to the Speaker. It warned that failure to comply would prompt the Speaker to take necessary steps to protect his reputation.
“The Rt. Hon, the Speaker requests Mr Amidu to do the honourable thing and withdraw his statements and apologise unreservedly to the Speaker of Parliament and indeed the Parliament of Ghana, with the same prominence as he made the false and malicious statements, within seven days from the date of the release of this rejoinder. The failure of Mr Amidu to adhere to this request would leave the Rt. Hon. Speaker to no other option than to take all steps necessary within his rights to vindicate his name.”
The statement condemned the false allegations as part of a deliberate attempt to tarnish the reputation of the Speaker. However, it affirmed that such efforts would not succeed.
“The Rt Hon Speaker will not be deterred from carrying out his public service duties, guiding and providing leadership for Parliament even in the face of insinuations, unprovoked attacks and unfounded allegations like Mr Amidu’s.”
“Mr Martin Amidu must appreciate that the decisions taken on the floor of parliament is an extension of the voices of the citizens by the legislators who represent them distinctively,” the statement added.
The Office clarified that the Speaker of Parliament does not vote in Parliament and therefore does not participate in its decisions, as stated in the 1992 Constitution and affirmed by the Supreme Court of Ghana.
“To re-state, it is false, malicious and a fabrication by Mr Martin Amidu that the Speaker of Parliament had secretly met with the President before the rejection of the 2021 Budget. The Speaker has not met the President in Dubai or anywhere else outside the Republic of Ghana.”