The Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, wants the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam George, to apologize for his claims that he [Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh], called the Tamale North MP, Alhassan Suhuyini “a fool” thus escalating tensions in Parliament to near-fisticuffs.
This was after the Joe Ghartey committee found the Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga guilty of contempt of Parliament, and recommended that he should apologize to the House.
[contextly_sidebar id=”KmaYIRPFHwClBwxgOL4CvsbgLmsrztAg”]Dr. Opoku Prempeh in a statement said he took “grave exception to the scurrilous and unfounded allegations”.
He further said he expected “Sam George to do the honourable thing by swiftly apologizing for his unfounded claim.”
‘I owe him no apology’
But responding to the statement on Eyewitness News, Sam George asserted that, he owed the Education Minister no apology.
“I stand fully and solely by the words I uttered in my interview this [Friday] morning on the Citi Breakfast Show. He should run away from it. He should rather be a man and admit that he did the wrong thing and stop running around and bundling words around.”
“I owe him no apology. He owes the honourable member from Tamale North an apology. And if he will be humble enough, he owes me an apology from four weeks ago,” the Ningo Prampram MP stated.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh’s statement also made reference to proceedings on March 10, 2017, and denied Sam George’s claim that he had called him a fool for prompting the Speaker to ask him if he was wearing a school uniform or was properly dressed to Parliament.
Sam George again stood by his claims that Dr. Opoku Prempeh called him a fool on the floor of Parliament for his actions, noting that Parliament’s Hansard “chose to omit some very unprintable words.”
“We were all in the chamber and I was not the only one who heard it. There are members of Parliament on our side who equally heard it and that is what triggered Alhassa Suhuyini’s anger… During the heckling, a lot of words were bundled around that don’t make their way into the Hansard.”
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana