Joseph Osei-Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, has announced his retirement from public service citing disappointment, lack of appreciation, and health concerns related to his work.

Mr Osei-Owusu, also known as Joewise expressed that the continual labeling of public servants as "thieves" has deeply discouraged him and diminished his passion for serving the nation.

Speaking on JoyNews' The Pulse, he said, “It hurts to hear people call you a thief only because you opted to work for the public. Listen to all public discussions.

"Every politician, every elected official is called a thief. Nothing hurts me more than that when I can say with pride that I have never asked for support from anybody.

"I have never asked for anybody to give me anything before. I do my work so those are the things that I think have contributed to my health issues. Now I have health issues so I want to leave the field quietly and endure my pain,” he said.

The Member of Parliament for the Bekwai constituency declared that he has no plans to reenter public service or hold any official position in the future.

He emphasized that Members of Parliament should not be labeled as thieves since they do not have access to public funds and thus cannot misuse or misappropriate them.

“We don’t spend public funds. We don’t even authorise expenditure. Practically nothing to do with money apart from approving the budget in Parliament.

"What we call the empty shell of the common fund goes to the District Assembly and you can only authorise the MCE or the coordinating director to spend that money in this way or that way. But every misconduct, they come back to the MP,” he said.