National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Shai Osudoku, Mrs. Linda Obenewaa Akweley Ocloo has described as “unfortunate” the actions by her colleague minority MP’s to describe the newly elected Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon, Lydia Seyram Alhassan “bloody widow”.
She said she would have disassociated herself from the act if she were to be in the chamber yesterday, knowing very well she also entered parliament through an unfortunate incident of her late husband’s death.
“I think it’s unfortunate what happened yesterday, if I were to have been in Parliament I wouldn’t have held the placard because I myself I’m a widow. I believe the minority did that based on the violence that characterized the Ayawaso West by-election but all in all, it was bad,” she told Kwaku Owusu Adjei on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa Fm Wednesday.
The minority in protest to the violence that took center stage of the Ayawaso West by-election staged a walk out of the swearing-in ceremony of their newly elected MP.
The NDC MPs said they boycotted Ms Alhassan’s swearing-in because they did not want to give credence to her victory in the by-election on Thursday, 31 January 2019, which was characterized by violence.
Meanwhile, a group calling itself Professionals for Change (P4C) has called on the Minority Caucus in parliament to apologize to Lydia Alhassan, for walking out on her during her swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday and also describing her as a “bloody widow”.
Describing the minority actions as “cold-hearted and heartless”, the group quizzed “Where is their humanity? For political reasons, the NDC MPs chose to throw away one of our societal norms of according a widow, respect and went ahead to describe her in such an unpalatable manner. This is the height of insensitivity on the part of the Minority! This is heartless, to say the least.”
“We demand an unqualified apology from the Minority to Honourable Lydia Seyram Alhassan. Going by their own logic, B.T. Baba, the MP for Talensi, should also not have been recognized because his election was characterized by terrible acts of violence and mayhem which resulted in fatal injuries to innocent voters”.
BY: ALEXANDER SEMORDZI
