Sammy Gyamfi must apologize to Speaker of Parliament

Presiding Members (PMs) in the Ashanti Region have commented on the scathing attacks that National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi launched on some members of the party and the leadership of Parliament.

According to the PMs of almost all the 43 Assemblies in the region, Mr Gyamfi must render an unqualified apology to the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, whom he disparaged as a traitor.

“As Presiding Members, the Speaker is our father and we will not sit down for a partisan person like Sammy Gyamfi to drag his reputation through the mud for doing nothing wrong,” Hon. Isaac Ohemeng-Prempeh, Ashanti Regional Dean of Presiding Members announced.

“On behalf of all the 43 Assemblies in the Ashanti Region, their Presiding Members and Assembly Members, we demand an unqualified apology from Sammy Gyamfi,” Mr Ohemeng-Prempeh added.

The Ashanti Regional Dean of Presiding Members was speaking at a Conference of Presiding Members in the region on Friday at the Sun-set Hotel in Kumasi.

The demand comes in the wake of an outpouring of condemnation that Sammy Gyamfi has been receiving after he called the Speaker, and Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrissu, and the Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak as traitors.

Mr Gyamfi, in reaction, went ballistic on Facebook.

“Comrades, the betrayal we have suffered in the hands of the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, the leadership of our Parliamentary group, particularly Hon. Haruna Iddrissu and Hon. Muntaka Mubarak, and dozens of our own MPs, is what strengthens me to work hard for the great NDC to regain power.”

“It is about time we understood, that we don’t have any NDC Speaker of Parliament. No, we don’t! We have a Speaker who rode on the back of the NDC into Office to pursue his own parochial agenda and nothing more. You trust them, at your own peril,” part of the post read.

But according to Hon. Ohemeng-Prempeh, it was erroneous for Sammy Gyamfi to have attacked the Speaker.

“The Speaker is not a political entity, his position makes him neutral, so why the attack on him; what could he have done if he had presided over the vote?“And it’s not just any Speaker that we are talking about, it is Rt. Hon Bagbin, the most revered Parliamentarian in the whole of the 4th Republic; this is unacceptable.”

Mr Ohemeng-Prempeh warned that “for us the Presiding Members in the Ashanti Region, Rt. Hon. Bagbin is considered a father and so our brother, Sammy Gyamfi, who is also from here, must heed us; our culture does not allow for what he has done. He should just apologize.

"Speaker Bagbin is a great leader who is respected in international circles and as it is often said, a prophet is not honoured in his country. Speaker after speaker at the conference including Mr George Oppong, presiding member of Mamponten Municipal Assembly and Mr Godwin Anto, presiding member of Mampong Municipal Assembly, condemned Sammy Gyamfi and urged him to apologise to speaker Bagbin.

Mr Michael Opoku, presiding member of Sekyere South district Assembly said “Mr Bagbin is a great leader who is respected nationwide, he is our father and we respect him a lot, looking at what he has done for this nation in parliament alone if Sammy Gyamfi loves Ghana and he is well cultured, he should have quickly apologized a long time ago, even if it is true that Sammy Gyamfi was under instruction to attack speaker Bagbin, common sense should have told him not to do so because some national NDC executives and ex-president Mahama worked under Mr Bagbin in parliament”.

The three-day conference, which was chaired by Nana Dr Appiaagyei Dankawoso, Omanhene Kyeame of Ashanti Juaben traditional area and the president of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was hosted by the Ashanti Regional Dean of Presiding Members, Mr Isaac Ohemeng Prempeh, with PMs from almost all the 43 Assemblies in the Ashanti Region in attendance.

The Chairman of the Council of State, Daasebere Nana Otuo Siriboe II; the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Simon Osei Mensah; the council of State Member for the region, Nana Owusu Achiaw; and the Regional Chairman of the NPP, Mr Bernard Antwi Boasiako alias Chairman Wontumi were presented with citations. Mr Frederick Agyarko Oduro, a local governance expert from the Institute of Local Government studies gave the hardworking PMs a lecture.

The NALAG president, Mr Bismark Baisie Inkum, MMDCE’s Dean of the Ashanti Region, Mr Joseph Owusu and Nana Opoku Ababio, deputy director of the Ashanti regional coordinating council were also in attendance.

Meanwhile, the MP for Tafo Pankrono, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, has called on Parliament to cite Mr Gyamfi for contempt of Parliament.