Ranking Member on the Health Committee and MP for Juaboso, Hon Kwabena Mintah Akando, is calling on the leadership of Parliament to subject lawmakers to mandatory testing for the coronavirus. This is to ascertain whether or not the MPs have the virus or otherwise.
The MP who expressed outrage over what he termed as the seemingly dormant posturing by the leadership of Parliament, told GBC Radio (95.7) that MPs are not immune from the deadly virus and therefore it behooves on both the legislature and the executive to ensure pragmatic measures are put in place to secure the safety of MPs.
“MPs travel a lot and interact with many people on a daily basis so proper measures must be adhered to in order to safeguard the safety of MPs” he told Uniiq FM’s Behind the News.
“One may talk about social distancing, but how far can our sitting arrangement go to check the spread of the virus, since our names are embossed on our seats?”
“One may talk about social distancing, but how far can our sitting arrangement go to check the spread of the virus, since our names are embossed on our seats?” He asked.
Hon Kwabena Akando further intimated that, spacing of seats for MPs is problematic due to the overcrowded nature of seating in the chamber, noting that it is a huge challenge.
The NDC MP who sounded very disappointed in the handling of the Covid 19 pandemic, said efforts meant to enhance protocols to curb the spread of the pandemic have yielded no results irrespective of incessant calls by a section of lawmakers.
He also revealed that, though government initially despised his advise to support the curtailment of the disease, Hon Akando opined that, the same administration after falling short of cogent ideas aimed to check the virus from spreading reverted to his advice which has since become the ideal mode of prevention against the pandemic in the country.
The ranking member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health stated unequivocally that, it would be disastrous for the House to turn a deaf ear to the proposed mandatory testing.
According to him, provisions for safety measures are in place in Parliament, and the call for the testing only aims to augment the security of members of the House.
“My call for mandatory testing of MPs over Covid 19 is not premised on suspicious tendencies, but except to say that, the coronavirus is no respecter of persons” he said on Behind the News on GBC’s Uniiq FM on Thursday.
Nana Dogbe (Deputy News Editor)
