Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, has apologised to Parliament for describing the House as cheap.
He, however, denied ever describing parliament as 'useless' but admitted describing the lawmaking arm of government as cheap in a radio interview.
“I want to state clearly that I respect Parliament and I will never insult parliament. I don’t feel shy apologising because the first day of the Privileges Committee hearing, I did apologise and today I maintain that as for calling parliament useless, I never said that," he said.
"I sincerely apologise to the House if they find it offensive. Whether I said cheap or cheapened I apologise.”
The maverick lawmaker apologised on Thursday, 14 February 2019.
Parliament’s Privileges Committee pronounced Mr Agyapong, guilty of contempt for making disparaging remarks against the House.
The Committee, Chaired by First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Osei-Owusu, stated in the recommendations of its report that having “concluded the matter in the light of the totality of the evidence gathered, and, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the Standing Orders and other relevant enactments, concluded that the Hon. Member for Assin Central Constituency, Mr Ken Ohene Agyapong is, indeed, in contempt of Parliament for the remarks he made that ‘Parliament is cheap’ and ‘Parliament is useless’”.
The Committee further recommended that the House adopt the report and “sanction Hon. Ken Ohene Agyapong by suspending him for the rest of this Session or reprimand him”.
Mr Agyapong’s alleged insult was reported to the house by Minority Chief Whip Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, and the Speaker subsequently referred the matter to the Privileges Committee.
Alhaji Muntaka said Mr Agyapong had stated in audio and videotapes he provided to the Committee that: “If this House were not useless, they would not have the likes of Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu as its leader.”
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