The Member of Parliament for Anyaa Sowutuom, Dr. Dickson Adomako Kissi, has defended the Transport Ministry’s decision to include Ministers and MPs in the list of persons permitted to use sirens in their cars and drive without speed limits in a new legislative instrument (LI).

According to him, lawmakers have numerous engagements within and outside of Parliament that put pressure on their schedules. He therefore believes that the new LI when approved would facilitate their movement across the lengths an breadths of the country to attend to the all-important programmes.

A section of Ghanaians have been unhappy about the LI and think it amounts to abuse of privileges, arguing that those being considered for inclusion are supposed to serve the masses and live by good examples rather than be seen to be serving their parochial interests.

Read also: Ministers, MPs to use sirens in cars, drive without speed limit in new L.I

With the current economic crisis, they believe it is not the time for Parliament to enact laws that will benefit them only instead of the entire populace.

Reacting to these comments on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Dr. Kissi insisted that the benefits of the government's decision outweighs any perceived drawbacks.

 “It is very unfortunate to say that MPs sleep a lot. I beg to differ. Sometimes we are up as late as 1 am and wake up as early as 5 am just to get to everything we need to do throughout the day.

“I am not necessarily a big fan of sirens, personally. I don’t have one, I never bought one but I am only making the case that, we are being narrow if we limit the MP’s work to necessarily be in the chamber,” he said on Tuesday.

He further argued that limiting their work to only chamber duties is narrow-minded.

“Today’s discussion has been too narrowed in terms of letting people look at the fact that MPs have so many other engagements outside of Parliament which puts pressure on us.”