Parliament ‘frees’ Kennedy Agyapong

Parliament could not take a decision on the fate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, who had been cited in an alleged contemptuous statement against the House.

Mr. Kennedy Agyapong was said to have described Parliament as a ‘cheap’ and ‘useless’ Institution.

Appearing before the committee on July 23, the Assin Central MP completely denied that he used ‘useless’ to describe Parliament but admitted that he used the word ‘cheap’ to describe the Institution.

The Assin Central MP unreservedly apologised to MPs and the Institution when he appeared before the committee for using the word ‘cheap’ to describe the Parliament of Ghana.

He said he used the word because he was highly provoked by one Kwabena Nsenkyire, the First Ashanti Regional Vice Chairman of the NPP who had earlier denigrated him (Ken Agyapong) by telling him that he (Agyapong) does not deserve to be called an honourable Member of Parliament and continued to rain other invective on him after he had vowed to expose investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.

He said he was expecting Parliament to ‘punish’ Kwabena Nsenkyire for denigrating him.

The Privileges Committee of Parliament was split in its recommendations to either suspend or reprimand the Assin Central MP after hearing the alleged contemptuous case against him.

The committee’s report was advertised on the Order Paper on Friday, July 27, and Saturday, July 28, for the plenary to debate and take a final decision on the matter but on both occasions the report was not discussed, let alone a final decision taken on it.

On Saturday, the final day of the second meeting when Parliament rose for recess, there was no sign that the report would be adopted and a final decision taken; hence Parliament rose without any final decision taken on Ken Agyapong’s case.

It is not clear whether the matter has been deferred to the next meeting or not but when Parliament eventually rose without the matter being discussed some MPs were seen shaking hands and sharing jokes with the Assin Central MP.

The Privileges Committee had recommended for the suspension or reprimand of the Assin Central MP even though he had apologised to the MPs.

“The committee noted the apology rendered by the MP and therefore did not consider expulsion as a sanction to be imposed. The committee was however in favour of either a reprimand or a suspension,” the Privileges Committee chaired by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, had recommended to the plenary but a final decision could not be taken by the plenary before Parliament rose on Saturday.