March 11, 2016

Return items in 7 days or..., Parliament tells ex-speaker
Audrey Micah, Ghanadot

Accra, May 27, Ghanadot - The Ex- Speaker of Parliament, Ebenezer Begyina Sekyie Hughes, has been given a seven days ultimatum to either return all the items he took away from his official residence upon leaving office, or have himself to blame for the consequences.

The Parliamentary Service Board yesterday ordered the ex-speaker to return all the items after a long emergency meeting that lasted for hours. The decision came hours after Mr. Sekyie Hughes wrote to the Parliamentary Service Board through his lawyers and offered to return all the items in his possession.

In taking the decision, the Parliamentary Service Board said it was guided by strong evidence before it that the former had no justification to empty his official residence, upon leaving office in January this year.

The Majority Leader, Alban Sumana Bagbin, a Member of the Parliamentary Service Board in an interview with Citi FM said the board found no basis for the recommendations and decided it was important not to set any bad precedence by “allowing the former Speaker to take away any item”.

According to him, since no other Speaker had looted state property when leaving office, “there was no reason why in this particular case we should differ from the earlier practice and earlier convention and since there was no basis at all for the Speaker’s conduct, we just had no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that he should return the items.

He disclosed that the decision of the Parliamentary Service Board did not in any way foreclose possible criminal charges against the former Speaker by the State.

The Minority Leader, Hon Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, has however called on critics to tone down on their criticism of the former Speaker. He said most of the attacks being directed at the former Speaker are most unfair and misdirected.

Mr. Hughes in his response, had asked the Board to go and retrieve the items from his private residence.

In a letter issued by his solicitors, Zoe, Akyea & Co, and addressed to the secretary of the board, Mr Hughes said he was "no longer interested in the items he took away from the Speaker's official residence, bona fide."

According to the letter, the former Speaker did not want to feed the frenzy of those who believed that without scandalising others, their own promi­nence would be diminished.

"Accordingly, for the sake of good governance, the integrity of the high office he previous­ly occupied and in good conscience, our client states categorically that he is no longer interested in the items he took from the Speaker's official residence, bona fide."

Ghanadot