Parliament has reprimanded Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, over his contemptuous comments referring the House as “cheap” and “useless”.
The determination was made at the Plenary through a voice vote, as the Privileges Committee recommended to the House, either a reprimand or suspension.
The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, before making the ruling, allowed Mr. Agyapong to make a comment before the final determination.
Mr. Agyapong thereafter, apologised to the House for his comment describing Parliament as “cheap”.
He however insisted that he never used the words “useless” to describe Parliament in his speech.
Complainant’s response
Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak (the Complainant), is however dissatisfied with the decision of the Plenary.
In an interview with ghananjustice.com, Mr. Muntaka stated that he is disappointed with the decision of the House.
He indicated that he was anticipating a stiffer punishment to serve as a deterrent to others and protect the dignity of Parliament.
“I am disappointed in the decision of the House. The Assin Central MP should have been given a stiffer punishment. I was expecting a punishment to serve as a deterrent”, he lamented.
Background of the issue
At the 13th sitting of the 7th Parliament held on Wednesday June 3, 2018, Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak drew the attention of the house to alleged disparaging comments by the Assin Central MP, Mr. Kennedy Agyapong in the media to the effect that the house was “useless and cheap”.
Mr. Muntaka indicated that the alleged comments were in contempt of Parliament under Standing Order 28 of the house.
In accordance with Standing Order 164(2), the complaint was referred to the Privileges Committee for investigation and report.
Privileges Committee’s report and findings
According to the report, the Committee held series of meetings and evidence was taken from the Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak.
The evidence submitted to the committee were in the form of audio-visuals from Net2 TV and Adom TV and excerpts of printed documents from owassfmonline.com and hypercitigh.com.
According to the evidence presented to the Committee, the Respondent, Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, used two phrases to call Parliament “useless” and “cheap”.
In the report, the Respondent admitted that he uttered the statement, “Parliament is cheap” but denied uttering “Parliament is useless”. He explained that he made his utterance out of extreme anger.
According to the report, the Committee was convinced that contrary to the denial by the Respondent, he indeed made those disparaging comments that “Parliament is cheap” and “Parliament is useless”.
In the report, the Committee determined that the comments by Kennedy Agyapong affront the dignity of Parliament and he is guilty of contempt of Parliament in terms of Article 122 of the Constitution and Order 28 of the Standing Orders of Parliament.
The Committee recommended that either a reprimand or a suspension be meted out to him, and put the two options to vote.
Out of a total membership of 31, 20 members were present at the time of the voting. Ten members voted in favour of reprimand as a sanction and ten members voted in favour of suspension as a sanction.
In view of the split ballot, the Committee recommended to the plenary to determine the appropriate sanction.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
