The media apology rendered to parliament by Financial Analyst and Social Commentator, Sydney Casely-Hayford after scathingly chastising it is not enough, the MP for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak has stated.
Ras Mubarak, the MP for Kumbungu in the Northern region, Thursday July 13, 2017 urged leadership of parliament to haul Mr. Casely-Hayford for contempt for impugning the integrity of the third arm of governance
Speaking at a recent summit on “The Economic and Political Rise of Africa,” the maverick member of OccupyGhana described the existence of the country’s lawmaking chamber as irrelevant and unimportant and that if given the chance he would destroy it.
“The first thing I will do if I had the opportunity is to break down parliament. We don’t need it”, he said.
“These people are sitting there, spending money like crazy, making stupid decisions, and passing stupid laws. They don’t read the papers that they are given, they don’t think through what the challenges are”, he said.
Enraged by the comments Mr. Mubarak implored parliament to drag Mr. Casely-Hayford before it for affronting the dignity of the lawmaking chamber and its inhabitants.
According to him, the comments are “damn right offensive and out rightly benighted,” adding it did not only attack the integrity of all members of parliament, past and present it promoted hatred and vandalism “when he talked about breaking down parliament.”
“So Mr. Speaker, I wish therefore to call on this honourable House to invite the gentleman [Mr. Hayford] to appear before the House to answer contempt charges,” he urged.
Mr. Mubarak’s plea has since been referred to the leadership of the House for a final decision by the 1st deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Osei Owusu.
Awakened by the gravity of his comments and impending invitation by parliament following Mr. Mubarak’s pleas, Mr. Casely-Hayford quickly expressed desire to retract and offer an unqualified apology for his disparaging statements.
“My comments went a little too far,” he told Starr News’ Ibrahim Alhassan Thursday July 13, 2017, adding “unreservedly an apology will be made and I will make it in the media shortly.”
But in his reaction, Dr. Apaak said even though, Mr. Casely-Hayford expressed remorse “I do not think that is enough.”
According to him, the utterances by the Financial Analyst is shocking and that if it goes unpunished “the copycat syndrome will take effect.”
As a result, he stated on Morning Starr Friday July 14, 2017 that “Casely-Hayford must appear before the House and apologise” urging the leadership of parliament not to wait for things to go wrong before acting.
