Minority Chief, Muntaka Mubarak
On Monday, February 15, 2021, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West narrated her version of the infamous ‘lap chair’ video which became a subplot of the fracas that ensued on the floor of parliament during the voting for the speaker of the eighth parliament of the fourth republic.
Ursula in videos and photos that went viral was seen comfortably relaxing on the laps of Kwabena Mintah Mikandoh, the Member of Parliament for Juaboso.
In his recount of the event, Akandoh said that much as he was unhappy with the conduct of Ursula, he exercised restraint in order not to disrupt the proceedings.
“We sat at the majority side, the right-hand side of where the speaker sits. So when they came in, all of them moved to the minority, the left side and sat down. Ursula refused to go to that side,” he said.
“…And when she came back, she sat on my lap. She just sat on my lap. I didn’t want to touch her.”
In Ursula’s account, she explained that there was an empty seat she could have opted for but she chose to sit on the MP because she felt entitled to it.
“After all the excitement of that day, I didn’t want to be a party to such a thing. But I did need to sit down. So, I sat in the chair that I was occupying before I went to the washroom, which he happened to be sitting on. When I sat down (on him), he started trying to shake me off and was moving back and forth before he quickly realized that it would have unintended consequences that would not be good for him.
“And so, he quickly stopped and froze. And at that point, I decided to restrain him from causing any further damage to himself.”
Muntaka Mubarak, a ranking member of the Appointment Committee who posed the question that triggered the narration by Ursula was not impressed and questioned if she thought sitting on a man’s lap was the best she could do.
“You said there was another seat that was left. You could have sat on that one. Do you think it was ladylike for you to do that?” he quizzed.
