The Privileges Committee of Parliament has recommended that the Assin Central MP, Ken Agyapong, should either be suspended from Parliament or reprimanded for insulting the House.
In excerpts of the committee’s report, sighted by Citi News, the committee urged the House to adopt its recommendations “by suspending him for the rest of this session or reprimand him.”
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“The committee has carefully considered the matter in the light of the totality of the evidence gathered and in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, the Standing Orders and other relevant enactments and concluded that the Hon. Member of for Assin Central Constituency, Mr Ken Ohene Agyapong is indeed in contempt of Parliament for the remarks he made that ‘Parliament is cheap’ and ‘Parliament is useless’.”
Mr Agyapong reportedly described the House as “useless” for having Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu as its Majority leader on Accra-based Net2 TV, which belongs to him.
He was responding to comments by a New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ashanti Regional executive’s on the Anas exposé.
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These comments compelled Muntaka Mubarak to file a motion to refer him to Parliament’s Privileges Committee.
Mr Agyapong contended that Muntaka Mubarak’s referral was based on comments taken out of context.
Kennedy Agyapong had described Muntaka Mubarak as dumb for referring him to Parliament’s Privileges Committee over the purported insult.
He insisted that Assin Central MP’s conduct was unfit for someone in the legislature.
After being queried during the committee sittings, Mr Agyapong apologized for making alleged contemptuous comments about the legislature in public.
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“I do not have a problem if Parliament feels offended. I apologize. I’m not a tin god.”
His core argument revolved around the fact that he described Parliament as cheap and not useless.
This is in spite of the fact that a tape was played to the hearing of all present. The two words, which he said Akan dialect, have similar in sounds, a situation that leaves it to interpretation depending on how one heard it.
Before his apology, he had tried and failed to have the Privileges Committee suspend its inquiry into the matter.
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He had written to the Committee urging it to suspend the sitting after he filed a motion to have the Speaker of Parliament rescind the referral of his case to the committee.
But Chairman of the Committee, Joe Osei Owusu, held that the mandate of the committee was to only inquire into the matter and not oversee a trial.