Chairman of the Privileges Committee, Hon. Joseph Osei Owusu, has stated that hearing of the abuse of privilege charges brought against the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyepong, will be conducted in person.
He clarified that contrary to claims by some Committee members, the hearing will not be conducted via Zoom.
He indicated that the Zoom meeting he called for was for the members of the Committee to decide on which day to sit and commence work, which has subsequently been scheduled for 5th August 2021.
The Chairman and also the 1st Deputy Speaker of the House explained the situation on Friday during the presentation of the Business Statement for next week ending 6th August 2021.
Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, had raised concern about the alleged Zoom hearing and appealed to the chairman to rather have the Committee sit in person to take evidence and advice the plenary accordingly.
The Chairman explained there was never an intention for the sitting of the Privileges Committee to be held on Zoom.
He said, “Leader, I think it would have been fair to speak to me or to your Ranking Member before bringing this matter to the floor of the House”
“I never called for hearing via Zoom. I know one of us has been giving interviews to the press and totally mispresented the facts.”
“It was a meeting to decide when we will sit, which I said we will do on Zoom. I discussed with my Ranking and I understand his challenges. People did not show up but the meeting went on.”
“It has been advertised the Privileges Committee will sit on 5th August and the venue has been giving for the meeting,” he added.
The Committee members, he said, were advised during that Zoom meeting which sections of the Standing Orders they should read in preparation for the Committee’s work and explained that was what that zoom meeting was intended to do and intended to be a hearing.
Source: MyPublisher24.com