Daughter Of A Murderer Comment: Angry Team March To Parliament

Dan Abodakpi, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta Constituency, on Tuesday March 4, 2025, appeared in Parliament with a vexed group from the Anlo Traditional Area of the Volta Region to present an official petition to the Speaker requesting Parliament to fish out which Member described Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, as a “daughter of a murderer”

Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings is MP for Klottey Korle Constituency and a biological daughter of former President Jerry John Rawlings of blessed memory and the said remarks were directed at her about a month ago by an unidentified MP in the Chamber.

Dan Abodakpi, a former Minister for Trade and Industry Minister, co-led the group of petitioners with the Zipuito of Anlo Duker.

The petitioners who had travelled to Accra all the way from the Volta Region were dressed in colours of red and black to signify their anger.

Some were also barefooted and wore warlike costumes specked with amulets.

The Clerk to Parliament Ebenezer Ahumah Djietror received the petition on behalf of the Speaker, RT. Hon. Alban S.K. Bagbin.

Speaker Bagbin announced on the Floor on same day that Parliament has launched an official investigation to identify the MP who made the said remark during a parliamentary sitting on 4th February 2025.

The Speaker said he was giving whoever the MP may be a week’s ultimatum to voluntarily own up and confess else justice would not be tempered with mercy if the culprit waits to be fished out by the investigation that has commenced.

Speaker Bagbin said it would be a sign of good fate and support for parliament’s dignity and integrity if the said MP owns up rather than wait to be smoked out.

Speaker Bagbin also rendered an apology over the matter: “In light of this incident, I extend my deepest apologies to Hon. Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle, Her Excellency Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, former First Lady of Ghana and widow of our late industrious President, the family, the chiefs, and all the good people of Anlo Dukor and Anlo land.”

CONTEXT

During proceedings on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday February 4, 2025, there was a little bit of a noisy situation  and mutual heckling among Members when a male voice was heard shouting, “Daughter of a murderer, sit down! Daughter of a murderer, sit down!”

By then, the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo–Markin,  was on his feet speaking and calling for calm among Members. Several of the Members from the Majority side, including Dr Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings, had also sprang to their feet waiting to catch the Speaker’s eyes when the unidentified male voice was heard screaming “Daughter of a murderer, sit down! Daughter of a murderer, sit down!”

Though Members could not immediately agree on who exactly made the said remarks, it was believed to have come from the Minority side.

No one has owned up to it and the search for the owner of the voice is in full swing.

Second Deputy Speaker, Andrews Asiamah was presiding when the incident occurred.

On the same matter, Member of Parliament for Damongo, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, has vehemently dismissed allegations that he could be the owner of the unidentified voice which was heard making the remarks that is now believed to be directed at Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings.

“Anybody who followed my career, and my involvement in my public life in all modesty will attest to the fact that I don’t speak in that nature and manner, the words which are forcefully being attributed to me are not words that I will use, secondly, I didn’t even know that such words had been altered”, Samuel Jinapor told journalists in Parliament on Wednesday.

He continued: “I found out this morning when the trending video was brought to my attention, and what I can say about that, is that it is false. I don’t even speak across the aisle in parliament. If I want to speak I draw the attention of the speaker before I speak, the allegations are false. I have huge respect for Former president Rawlings.”

CONSTITUENTS ANGRY

A week after that incident, scores of angry constituents from the Klottey Korle Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, trooped to Parliament while grumbling, murmuring and wagging their forefingers  towards the sky to register their displeasure against the said comments which they described as disparaging and targeted at their MP, Dr Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings

The angry constituents,  with some of them punching clenched fists in the air while singing to music from a bard of percussionists that accompanied them, presented a petition to Parliament over the said disparaging remarks and asked that the person who made the comments should be fished out and dealt with according to the rules and regulations of Parliament, without mercy.

That petition was also received by the Clerk to Parliament, Mr. Ebenezer Ahumah Djietror.