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By
Benjamin Mensah, RNG
Accra, July 27, GNA – The Privilege Committee
Parliament has established contempt of Parliament against Mr. Kennedy Ohene
Agyapong, the deputy of Central Assin, and recommended that he should be suspended
for the remainder of the current session or be reprimanded.
"The Committee has carefully examined the
taking into account all the evidence gathered and in accordance with
with the provisions of the Constitution, the Regulations and others
legislative provisions and concluded that the deputy of Assin Central, Mr.
Kennedy Ohene Agyapong is indeed disregarding Parliament for the remarks that he made
that "Parliament is cheap" and that "Parliament is useless", a report from the
Privileges Committee, said:
The report, signed by Mr. Joseph Osei-Owusu,
First Vice-President of Parliament and Chairman of the Privileges Committee
noted the apology presented by Mr. Agyapong.
He therefore did not consider expulsion
sanction to be imposed; and the Committee was, however, in favor of
reprimand or suspension.
"After much deliberation, the Committee
put both options to a vote, "reports said, adding," out of a total
members of thirty-one (31), twenty (20) members were present at the time of
vote. Ten (10) MPs voted in favor of the reprimand as a penalty and ten
10) Members voted in favor of suspension as a sanction.
"In view of the split vote, the Committee
recommends to the House which of the two sanctions to impose
on Mr. Kennedy Agyapong. "
Recommendations followed an investigation
led by Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, when Alhaji Muntaka
Mohammed-Mubarak, MP for Asawase, drew the attention of the House to an alleged
Mr. Agyapong's disparaging remarks on social media that
"The house is useless and cheap and that if the house was not useless, it would not be
to have Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu as leader of his majority.
The Committee held a series of meetings and two
public hearings, and evidence was gathered from the complainant, who
submitted to the Committee relevant documents on allegations of contempt
respondent's comments, and copies of all relevant documents were also
made available to the respondent.
At the first public hearing, Mr. Alexander
Afenyo-Markin, the respondent's lawyer raised a preliminary legal objection
and drew the attention of the Committee to the fact that three members of the
Cynthia Morrison, Naana Eyiah and Samuel Nsow-Djan filed a challenge
themselves new procedures in this area, in accordance with the
Order 164 (4) of the House.
In view of the request, the
completed the public hearing and met in camera to deliberate on whether the
the request of the three members is accepted.
The Committee accepted the request of the
three members to recuse themselves from further prosecution by the
By a memorandum dated July 3, 2018, the
The Committee communicated its decision to the President and, according to Mr. Yaw
Buaben, Mr. Yaw Afful and Nanan Akua Owusu Afriyie, all members of Parliament
have been appointed to act as members of the Committee for the purpose of
According to the report, the Committee held a
second public hearing on Monday, July 23, 2018; and the video in which the
the respondent was the subject of derogatory comments.
The Speaker informed the respondent that
The committee wanted him to address the issue of "Parliament is cheap" and "useless"
European Parliament "
Mr Agyapong, according to the accepted report
that he uttered the word, "Parliament aye fo" in Twi meaning "Parliament is
cheap "but denied that he said" Parliament aye foo "which means" Parliament useless. "
" He explained that he made the statement
"Parliament is cheap" out of extreme anger and so is excused for
describing Parliament as being cheap ", states the report.
The Committee concludes that the comments
Mr. Agyapong was an affront to the dignity of Parliament and so it was
guilty of contempt of Parliament under Article 122 of the Constitution
and Order 28 of the Standing Orders of the Parliament.
GNA
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