Parliament summons Prof. Alex Dodoo before Privileges Committee

A Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Alex Dodoo has been summoned before the privileges Committee of Parliament for allegedly bringing the image of Parliament into disrepute.

The Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin requested the Speaker to summon the  Professor to the Committee due to what he describes as unsavoury comments he made about Members of Parliament on a private Radio Station in Accra over their concerns on the planned Ebola vaccine trial.

The MP for Manhyia South, Matthew Opoku Prempeh supported the application by the Majority Leader. He said it is high time people become circumspect in their speech.

The Speaker did not take the utterances of the University Lecturer lightly. He said he has been hesitant in referring matters to the Privileges Committee, but the learned Professor had gone overboard.

Last week, Prof. Dodoo, on various media networks, condemned the reaction of MPs to the vaccine trial which was to take place in Hohoe, referring to them as "ignorant", among other things.

The MPs had kicked against the trial and called for broad consultations because tests of that nature were of national dimension.

Some also suggested that the vaccine trial could be an unwitting attempt to "import" the disease into the country.

Others asked whether it had been tried on mice and chimpanzees, and said the trials should rather be conducted in countries where the disease was prevalent.
But Prof. Dodoo, in a reaction, said the MPs needed to apologise to Ghanaians for their incorrect statements and comments made out of ignorance.


GBC