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Deputy Minister of Communications, Felix Ofosu-Kwakye, has called on Parliament to call to order the Member for Assin North, Kennedy Agyepong, to protect the integrity and sanctity of the House and the country’s democracy.

Speaking on Accra-based Radio Gold on Tuesday, Mr Ofusu-Kwakye, wondered why the leadership of Parliament and the Parliamentary Privileges Committee have not deemed it necessary totake proactive steps to immediately sanctionMr. Agyepong for his vulgar comments and statements intended to incite and create fear.

“The inaction of Parliament in the past, to call the errant MP to order has emboldened Ken Agyepong to spew all sorts of inflammatory statements in the public space. Parliament must take steps to preserve its image. They need to reprimand him in order to restore public confidence in Parliamentarians and also protect the sanctity of the House,” he advised.

The MP, who was speaking on a campaign platform at Asokwa in Kumasi, claimed the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) got her job in exchange for sexual favours. Mr. Agyapong alleged some highly placed government officials told Mrs Osei to “bring your buttocks in exchange for the EC Chair position.” 

The Deputy Minister condemned the statement describing it as “vulgar and senseless language.” He however attributed the MP’s statement to the lack of leadership in the party.

“As far as I am concerned Kennedy Agyepong’s continuous misbehavior can be pinned down to a general degeneration of standards in the NPP and the tacit endorsement of his misbehavior by the flag bearer of the NPP Nana AkufoAddo. The leader of the NPP must for once show some spine and call this vulgar MP to order. Nana Akufo-Addo must exhibit decisive leadership in this matter. We have a duty as a people to call out Kennedy Agyapong and condemn him for his senseless attack on the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission.

When asked if the state should take an action against the MP for his despicable comments, the Deputy Minister said “it isn't all the time that the prosecutorial powers of the state must be brought in to check deviant behaviors of citizens and that moral persuasion could also be used. I am therefore calling on think tanks, Women Groups, Religious and Political leaders to condemn the MP for his misbehavior and ask him to retract and apologize”.

Deep throat sources within the NPP say the party is sharply divided over whether to bow to pressure and apologize. The Republic Newspaper has learnt one group, mainly Akufo Addo loyalist believe they must keep the momentum of creating fear and panic through threats to send a strong signal to the EC.

The group also believes such inflammatory comments asserts NPP’s resolve to match the NDC boot for boot and is also in tandem with the posture of their flagberer Nana Akufo Addo who first issued the ALL DIE BE DIE mantra in the campaign towards the 2012 elections.

Minority MPs have so far declined to publicly condemned Kennedy Agyapong saying they don’t want to be seen to be reprimanding one of their own.

The silence of NPP flagbearer Nana Akufo Addo on the latest development which has been publicly condemned by a large section of the public including gender advocates including Executive Director of NGO Abantu for Development, Rose Mensah-Kutin, Civil Society groups like IMANI Ghana, has surprised many.

Nana Addo has been tagged as a violent person whose followers draw inspiration from his actions. It will be recalled that the party is currently sharply divided because of his intolerance. Party Chairman, Paul Afoko, General Secretary Kweabena Agyapong and leading founding members and financiers have been sidelined.

Many of these personalities many of who served under the Kufuor Administration are sitting on the fence.

The latest outburst by Kennedy Agyapong has been described as the making of the NPP itself because the party in 2012 hailed the dishonorable MP when he was granted bail after his infamous hate speech which asked Akans to kill Ewes and Gas.

In May this year, the Assin North MP commended Ashanti regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, alias Chairman Wontumi when he slapped his colleague MP. Nana Akufo Addo again was silent on the matter.

“Wontumi is a fantastic chairman; the slap he gave the MP is good. In fact he [Collins] deserves to be beaten,” he scoffed.

Earlier this month, he again bragged on his radio station, OMAN FM that NPP footsoldiers will attack security agents detailed to NPP strongholds on the day of the elections.

“The security task force main agenda is to send 6 or more task forces to NPP strong holds, hot spots on elections day and that day we are going to lynch them if they try it, we have also head that the security will be snatching ballot boxes and we want to tell them we going to lynch them if they try it,” he stated

Articles 115 and 116 of the 1992 Constitution is explicit on privileges with regard to Parliament and Members of Parliament and which grants it the power it exercises. A careful reading of the entirety of these two provisions reveals clearly that the Privileges Committee is intended to serve as a watchdog on MPs but it is yet to haul the stubborn member for his ‘loose talk’.

The Majority women’s caucus in Parliament has in a statement however called on the MP to retract his unsavoury statement and apologize to the EC Boss.

Charlotte Osei is the country’s first female Chairperson of the Electoral Commission. She had previously worked as the Head of the National Commission for Civic Education. She was appointed by President Mahama and sworn in on June 30, 2015. Since her appointment she has endured attacks challenging her academic background and her nationality. Recently, a Sports broadcaster Patrick Osei-Agyemang aka Countryman Songo described the EC Boss as a 'thief', ' dumb', 'stinking' and 'incompetent’.