The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, is currently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for another medical review.
This was captured in a letter Mr. Bagbin wrote to the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, dated January 1, 2022, and sighted by citinewsroom.com.
Per the letter, the Speaker, who left the country on Friday, January 7, 2022, is expected to return on Sunday, January 23.
“I am writing to inform you of my absence from Ghana from Friday, 7th January 2022 till Sunday, 23rd January 2022 in order to honour an appointment for a medical review in the United Arab Emirates”, the letter mentioned.
The Speaker in the letter also informed the president that, Parliament will resume its sitting for this year on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.
He also told the President that, the House will undertake a COVID-19 booster vaccination exercise for MPs and other parliamentary staff before the resumption of official duties.
This, he said, is “part of measures to contain the infection and spread of the Coronavirus Disease within the parliamentary precincts, particularly in the wake of the spike in infections as well as the new wave of the Omicron variant of the disease”.
This is the second time the Speaker is traveling to Dubai to undergo a medical review; the first was on November 27, 2022.
During the first medical review, Mr. Bagbin was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Alice Adjua Yornas, Head of Parliamentary clinic, Dr. Prince Kofi Pambo, the Speaker’s Secretary, and his aide.
He embarked on his first medical trip a day after he presided over Parliament’s chaotic developments that saw the Members of the Majority side of Parliament staging a walkout during processes to approve the 2022 budget and the House’s subsequent rejection of same.