Bagbin Apologises to Disables

It may have been a wearing one-week struggle for the Second deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin as he came under intense heat for supposed derogatory comments made against persons with disability (PWDs).

As it turned out, he could not stand the heat and eventually succumbed by dishing out an unqualified apology to the former Minister of Communication, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah and former Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs, Dr Seidu Danaa, for referring to their disabilities―stammering and visual impairment respectively.

Speaking to Journalists in Accra, yesterday, Mr. Bagbin said, “I assure all Ghanaians especially, Ghana Federation of the Disabled, other Civil Society Organisations, and the NDC family who by one way or other felt offended by my alleged comments of my respect and support for persons with disability.

“I render my heartfelt apology to you all. I want to take full responsibility for the indiscretion in going public with issues that should otherwise be private to the NDC,” he added.

Background

Verboten! Seemed to be the default action from a cross section of Ghanaians when the Nadowli-Kaleo parliamentary representative reportedly attributed the poor performance of the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Presidential and Parliamentary elections to the appointment of Dr. Boamah the “stutterer” and Dr Danaa the “blind man.

According to Mr. Bagbin, though Dr. Boamah exhibited intelligence when addressing issues, his stuttering wasted time causing impatient Ghanaians to focus their attention on others who could rattle.

No sooner had Mr. Bagbin made those assertions than some civil society groups came knocking on his gates, demanding an apology.

But in his recent reaction to the public fury, the flag bearer-hopeful of the opposition NDC said, his assertions were misconstrued by his opponents for political gains.

“For the record, I wish to state emphatically that, I did not say persons with disabilities cannot hold public offices. I did not say that. What I said was that certain wrong decisions were taken”, Mr. Bagbin explained.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]