Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo, the Dean of the School of Communications at the University of Ghana has called on the Minority in Parliament to apologise to the newly elected Member of Parliament for Ayawaso Wwst Wuogon Constituency, Mrs Lydia Seyram Alhassan.

The call comes on the back of hooting made at the MP on Tuesday February 5 2019 when she was being sworn in as the MP on the floor of the House.

The Minority side of the House had carried placards with the inscriptions "bloody widow".

According to the Professor, the Minority side of the House went out of line by portraying such an act.

She further stated, “if the minority will take time to reflect and want women to be part of politics they will apologize. It is important that members of society teach people how to disagree in a civilized manner”.

According to her, the actions portrayed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs was wrong in two folds.

First, she stated that there was no evidence that Mrs. Lydia Alhassan, the winner of that election caused the violence that characterised the by-election, or that she won the elections because of the violence.

Secondly, Prof. Gadzekpo faults the minority’s action on the ground that it amounted to an attack on women.

According to her, Lydia Alhassan  “won on many fronts. It is her view [also held by the Electoral Commission], that the event of just one polling station could not invalidate those of the several others which were so peaceful and orderly.

“The fact that she won that constituency is not tied to the violence. Whether or not she would have won [without the violence], we don’t know. But the fact is she won,” she said while Speaking on Accra based radio station Joy FM earlier today.

“Parliamentarians should never hold a placard against a woman, I doubt if it was a male person they would behave in a similar manner. Her identity as a widow is not necessary”, she said adding that the Minority side was "intimidating women and meant to shame them”,  she regretted that Ghana’s “political culture is inhospitable to women.”

Prof Gadzekpo said she was not surprised that some women in the NDC joined the vilification of a fellow woman because issues about gender are not a question of men versus women but an issue of understanding of how women are treated.

“Pressure from the dominant group always forces others to go against their own interest” she concluded.