Parliament: Kofi Attor Is Speaker’s Senior Advisor And Not An Acting Speaker
The office of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has rubbished a publication by the Daily Guide newspaper that the Speaker has appointed a member of the National Democratic Congress, in the person of Kofi Attor as acting Speaker.
In the publication, the newspaper pointed out that “the speaker overlooked his First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu commonly known as Joe Wise who doubles as MP for Bekwai and MP for Fomena, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, an Independent MP to appoint Kofi Attor, who he introduced as a Chief of Staff at the Office of the Speaker at a recent media engagement to represent him in a meeting with an international organization, Medecins San Frontiers (MSF).
It continued that “Per a memo from the Head of Parliamentary Relations and protocols to Majority and Minority Leaders, Chairman of Health Committee and Ranking Member, Health Committee, intercepted by DGN Online, MSF was paying a courtesy call on the Speaker of Parliament and in his absence directed Kofi Attor to receive the guests.”
In a rejoinder, the office of the Speaker said the said person, Kofi Attor, is only the Speaker’s Senior Advisor and works with the Speaker’s Secretariat.
It stated that “The Speaker assigns responsibility to him and the staff of his Secretariat from time to time. In all these, he has never been assigned responsibility as acting Speaker”.
It further explained that on the referenced occasion, “Hon Attor was assigned to receive a message intended for the Speaker” from the delegation and added, “that assignment cannot make him the acting Speaker of Parliament”.
The office of the Speaker indicated that the publication is an attempt to court public dissatisfaction and ridicule for the Speaker.
“The public is advised to ignore the mischief that was intended”, it concluded.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
