FLASHBACK: Ursula Owusu sitting on the lap of Mintah Akandoh in Parliament
The Minister-designate for Communication and Digitization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, on Monday, defended her decision to sit on the lap of the opposition NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, saying she only “used a physical restraint to subdue an obstreperous adult,” who was hoping to provoke an incident.
Ursula, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Ablekuma West, sat on the lap of her fellow MP, Akandoh, inside the chamber of the legislative house during the eventful overnight vote to determine the Speaker of Parliament on January 7, 2021.
The NDC had come to occupy her seat and refused to vacate after she took a trip to the washroom.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful said she was left with no option but to sit on Mr. Akandoh’s lap in the face of defiance of his decision not to vacate the seat for her as a means to subdue him from causing any unintended consequences.
Answering questions on her vetting by the Appointments Committee on Monday, the minister-designate indicated that it was evident that Mr. Akandoh, whose seat was empty, was hoping to provoke an incident when he decided to occupy her seat even after she had returned from the washroom.
“After all the excitement of that day, I didn’t want to be a party to such a thing. But I did need to sit down. So I sat in the chair that I was occupying before I went to the washroom, which he happened to be sitting on.
“When I sat down, he started trying to shake me off and was moving back and forth before he quickly realized that it would have unintended consequences that would not be good for him. And so he quickly stopped and froze. And at that point, I decided to restrain him from causing any further damage to himself,” she explained.
Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful stressed that she used a “physical restraint to subdue him. So it was a physical restraint to subdue an obstreperous adult,” adding that in her experience “even when there aren’t seats available, the gentlemen get up to offer their seats to ladies who may not have a seat in the house.”
“They do not leave the chair that they are sitting on to come and occupy the seat that the lady is sitting on,” she noted.
She was recounting the events that characterized the inauguration of the Eighth Parliament during which the House was thrown into pandemonium with some MPs engaging in scuffle and other unparliamentary behaviour, noticeable among them were the kicking of voting screens and a ballot box as well as the snatching of ballot papers in the full glare of the public.
By Ernest Kofi Adu