Presenting what he claimed to be a transcription of the insults the Fanteakwa MP, Amankwa Kwabena Asiamah, reportedly rained on the people from the northern part of the country on a Peace FM morning programme, ‘Kokrokoo’ last Monday, the deputy Minister urged the Speaker to invoke her jurisdiction and refer the MP to the Privileges Committee of Parliament.
The comments allegedly made by the MP, Alhaji Inusah, who is also the MP for Tamale Central, argued, had brought the name of Parliament into disrepute, because he was on the programme as a legislature.
The deputy minister claimed the Fanteakwa MP had remarked in part that ‘the northerners have a psychological position that Northerners cannot be any better in life and that poverty is their portion.
‘They lack the culture of property owning which makes them very lazy; they always have to be spoon fed. They should eliminate that mental culture of poverty in the north’.
The Deputy Minister’s allegation however generated a heated debate on the floor of Parliament between the Minority New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Majority National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Tempers flared and the House was almost turned upside down as the minority group accused the Deputy Minister of deliberately twisting the comment by the Fanteakwa MP to serve a political interest.
The Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, indicated that Alhaji Inusah had earlier showed the transcription to him and he admonished him not to raise the issue on the floor of Parliament until it was thoroughly investigated.
But the Deputy Minister apparently disregarded the advice and went ahead to raise the potentially-explosive matter.
Speaker Justice Bamford-Addo had to cool down tempers by stepping the matter down for further consideration by the leadership until today.
Enraged by what he termed as a dangerous fabrication from Alhaji Fuseini, MP for Manhyia Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh said the deputy minister had done a great disservice to Parliament by turning the House into an avenue for propaganda.
According to him, he had listened to the tape and there was nowhere the Fanteakwa MP uttered the insulting words as alleged.
‘The transcription was a deliberate fabrication, scandalous and frivolous; and that is dangerous for the House and the country,’ Dr. Prempeh charged, saying the Fanteakwa MP would not deliberately insult the people of northern extraction.
Meanwhile, the NPP has issued a statement on the matter, saying it had taken notice of what happened on the floor of Parliament regarding the comments allegedly made by their MP on Peace FM.
The statement, signed by the Minority Leader and MP for Suame, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said, ‘The party believes that the words and meaning of the MP’s statement has been twisted. An investigation by the Privileges Committee of Parliament or any other body would establish this fact’.
It stated that ‘in the meantime, if the statement by the Hon. MP has given offence to MPs or any other person, the party unreservedly apologizes’.
By Awudu Mahama
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