Kennedy Agyapong faces Privileges Committee today over insults

The Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Agyapong will today be hauled before the Privileges Committee for insulting the House.

Maverick politician and NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, was cited for contempt for calling the legislature a cheap and useless Assembly.

He’d therefore on the back of his utterances been hauled before the Privileges Committee of Parliament by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Joseph Osei Owusu, who presided over sitting on 6th June, 2018 for questioning, over his outburst which Members consider very denigrating.

Mr. Agypong, according to a complaint lodged on the floor of the House by the Minority Chief Whip, Hon. Mohammed Mubarak-Muntaka, Wednesday, June 6, 2018, referred to Parliament a “Cheap” and “Useless House” without which it wouldn’t have somebody like Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu as a leader.

Cheap Assembly

Mr. Kennedy Agyapong weeks ago on National Agenda on Net2, a private television owned by the businessman himself, made disparaging remarks about Parliament and the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.

In a video recording of the said program posted on YouTube, Mr. Agyapong is seen and heard calling the legislature a cheap Assembly which does not feed him. He also dared the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, not to disturb him with Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ story because if he does, he will disgrace him with evidence which shows that the ace investigative journalist is more corrupt than the people he has investigated over the years.

“If Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu dares me and I will produce the evidence against Anas, he will be disgraced. Do you know what I have? Does Kye-Mensah-Bonsu think that he is better than the Judge? Are you out of your mind? Parliament is rather cheap – Am I a small boy? Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is older than me but he hasn’t made it in life more than I do. I only respect him but if he dares me I will match him boot for boot. Parliament does not feed me. What is the GH?11,000 they are paying me for? I am daring Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu to bring out the investigations which was done by Anas on Parliament. Is Parliament more than the Judiciary? Why did he show that of the Judiciary and refusing to show what he did about Parliament? I will fight for justice for everybody in this country. This is justice for all”, noted the Assin Central lawmaker.

His utterances have since then incurred the displeasure of Parliament with some Members throwing their support behind the Minority Whip for the House to haul the Assin Central MP before the Privileges Committee for questioning.

MP for Tamale Central, Alhaji Inusah Adbulai B. Fuseini, commenting on the issue told the House that the utterances of the Assin Central lawmaker against the Majority Leader is in bad taste, stressing that if the country was practicing a Parliamentary democracy, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu would have been the Prime Minister.

“Mr. Speaker, I don’t think we are that foolish. The 275 Members of Parliament including him are elected Members. To say that these 275 Members including him are foolish is to say that the people who have elected us are foolish people. And I don’t think that the people who elected Hon. Kennedy Agyapong are foolish people. To say that the 275 Members including the Speaker and the Clark are foolish people is to cast aspersions on our integrity”, he noted.

The Majority Chief Whip and MP for Sunyani East, Kwasi Ameyaw Cheremeh, on his part, said “what is contemptuous is contemptuous irrespective of who is making the contemptuous statement” but stressed that there is the need to give the Hon. Kennedy Agyapong the right to be heard over the issue.