Government must address Speaker’s security concerns

The Upper West NDC MPs Caucus has called on the government to address the security issues of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, following the government unilateral withdrawal of part of his security details.

According to the group, the lack of sufficient response by the government to the present situation was worrying.

“Essentially for every public figure, security is crucial and must be taken seriously”

Dr Rashid Pelpuo, Member of Parliament (MP) for Wa Central who spoke on behalf of the group, made the call when he briefed the media in Parliament in reaction to government inaction on the security concerns of the Speaker.

Dr Pelpuo also urged the government to give an adequate response to the concerns expressed by the myriads of public opinions to satisfy the complete security need of the Speaker,

If even it will require the reinstatement of the military team that had been withdrawn exclusively by the government.

He explained that security provided for a public figure in any of the three arms of Government is not compromised either by subjecting the security arrangement to full public knowledge and, or to reducing the adequacy of the security package to the disadvantage of the officer concern.

He said, in the case of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, all the security arrangements were breached.

“This inspires our deep concern about the apparent inaction by government to address the issue despite some worries expressed variously by the public on the withdrawal of the military security from the official security setup of the Speaker” he added.

Dr Pelpuo also indicated that like any of the leaders of the three arms of Government, the security of the Speaker was of paramount concern to the people of Ghana and required the government to rise to the responsibility of adequately addressing the present lapse in which a military team, which was part of the security details of the Speaker was withdrawn and despite all the complaints, government had said nothing about the issues.