Parliament has deferred its consideration of the Privileges Committee’s report after an inquiry into the allegations of contempt against Assin Central MP, Ken Agyapong.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu explained that this was to make sure Parliament recessed without any tensions.
[contextly_sidebar id=”oyHVCOvEPijOiqSoRCrFTdLN6qCHNzzD”]”We had a pre-sitting meeting and we said we wanted to leave on a very good note so we decided that when we come back, we would then come and consider the matter… we all felt that we should leave on a point and on issues that bind us together rather than issues that divide us,” he told the media.
The Committee in its report found Mr. Agyapong guilty of having made contemptuous comments about Parliament.
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.”
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 on the Anas exposé.
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.
“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.
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.
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By: Duke Mensah Opoku & Delali Adogla-Bessa/citinewsroom.com/Ghana