Parliament ‘disowns’ speaker Bagbin, Mahama photo

Parliament has officially reacted to a photo making the rounds on social media showing speaker Bagbin with a wall mounted portrait of former president John Dramani Mahama in the background.

In a statement posted on parliament’s verified Facebook page, the house disowned the said photo stating: “Please note, that this photo is not from us and the page on which it was posted does not belong to the Parliament of Ghana.

“Parliament has only one Facebook page which is verified and that’s where we post all authentic news and information from Parliament,” it added.

The post also stressed the need to support the speaker’s call for unity and thus tasked people to desist from using fake news to drag the name of the chamber into disrepute.

The dismissed photo according to Ghanaweb checks is a doctored image of the robed speaker with a wall mounted photo of the former president. The original photo taken yesterday is of speaker Bagbin with president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the background.

Parliament further confirmed that the original photo was of the speaker in his holding room in the Chamber Block.

Bagbin’s historic election as speaker was marred by clashes between both sides of the house. The former lawmaker has been congratulated by the president in his inaugural address, by the former president via social media and by civil society organizations.