Kennedy Agyapong narrowly escapes jail
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, nearly got jailed after insulting a lawyer in court.
However, the MP quickly apologised for his indiscretion after the trial judge of an Accra High Court, Justice Eric Baah, drew his attention to a possible contempt, saving him a jail sentence.
Mr Agyapong had been in court with his lawyers regarding a GH₵25 million defamation suit filed by Anas Aremeyaw Anas against him.
However, the legislator got infuriated when Odie Krow, one of the lawyers for the investigative journalist, described him as “incompetent” when he asked him to identify video evidence that the MP had submitted before the law court.
The MP, who responded angrily, described the lawyer as “foolish”.
In his submission, Mr Agyapong also argued that the description by the lawyer was an insult to him.
“The words he (counsel) used was an insult to me (Ken Agyepong). He earlier said I’m incompetent,” he said. “Who the hell do you think you are? I am a Member of Parliament. My Lord, he (counsel) is disrespecting me. Have you campaigned before?” the angry MP quizzed the lawyer in court.
However, Sammy Darko, another lawyer of Anas, rose to his feet and said that the action of the MP was a disrespect to the court and not necessarily against the lawyer.
Justice Eric Baah subsequently intervened to calm matters.
He explained that lawyers and witnesses address the court and not individuals.
Therefore, any indecent language used during court proceedings was against the dignity of the court.
The justice said, “I agree that the unprinted words used by the defendant are not acceptable, and I call on him to withdraw his words”.
The MP then admitted his wrongdoing and apologised to the court.
The court accepted Mr Agyapong’s apology and that of the lawyer and cautioned them against the use of indecent words in court.
READ ALSO: Kennedy Agyapong Pleads Not Guilty In Contempt Case
Meanwhile, the court has upheld objections by lawyers of Anas against portions of the evidence-in-chief of the Assin Central MP.
Particularly, paragraphs 7 and 8 of the statement of Mr Agyapong were deleted from the records.
Paragraph 7 states, “It is my contention that before the premiere of the said documentary by the plaintiff, I was reliably informed that the plaintiff had approached the FA President by name Kwasi Nyantakyi that if he the FA President can pay him an amount of US$150,000 the plaintiff was going to either stop showing the portion that sought to implicate the FA President or stop premiering the
entire documentary”
It is contained in paragraph 8 that, “However, Mr Kwasi Nyantakyi could not raise the said amount but managed to get US$100,000 which Plaintiff vehemently refused as being insufficient, thus went ahead to premiere the documentary.”
Why Kennedy Agyapong is in court
In 2018, Anas Aremeyaw Anas filed a GH₵ 25 million defamation suit against the Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyapong.
The suit follows the NPP legislator’s comment on his media outlet (Net 2 TV), throwing many accusations about the renowned investigative journalist.
Before the premiere of ‘Number 12,‘ a documentary exposing corruption in football, Mr Agyapong had levelled allegations against the journalist, including his inability to pay taxes and land guards’ use to grab people’s properties others.
The NPP legislator is yet to provide evidence to back his claims.
Therefore, Anas is seeking relief, including general damages for libel and aggravated damages from the libellous comments.