Parliament has firmly denied claims circulating on social media that the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, met with President Nana Akufo-Addo to negotiate a settlement regarding the declaration of four parliamentary seats vacant.

This follows a social media video suggesting that such a meeting took place after the Speaker's ruling on October 17, 2024, which declared the seats of four Members of Parliament vacant.

In a statement released by Parliament, it was clarified that the video in circulation is misleading. The footage, according to the official response, is from July 4, 2024, when Speaker Bagbin led a delegation to present the maiden Democracy Cup to the President.

Parliament described the video as being “wrongly labelled and twisted” to create false narratives about the Speaker's integrity.

“Parliament states without any equivocation that there is no iota of truth in the insinuation in the circulated video,” the statement said.

The controversy began when Speaker Bagbin ruled on a call by the Minority Leader to declare the seats of four MPs vacant, leading to a leadership crisis in the House. However, Parliament is now urging the public to disregard the video, branding it as an “attempt to hoodwink” people into believing a false story.

“The attempt to wrongly label the video and twist facts to impugn the integrity of the Rt. Hon. Speaker and Parliament is not only disingenuous but unfortunate,” the statement continued.

Parliament has therefore urged the public to “treat the narrative with the contempt it deserves” and to disregard any attempts to mislead them about the Speaker's actions or any supposed negotiations with the President.

This denial comes amidst ongoing political tension in Parliament following Speaker Bagbin's controversial ruling, which has sparked debate over the balance of power between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).