Angry Ken Agyapong Storms Out Of TV Studio

NPP firebrand and Member of Parliament for Assin North, Hon. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, shocked viewers of e-TV Ghana, a free-to-air commercial television channel when he unceremoniously stormed out of the station’s studios during its ‘Newspaper Review’ show dubbed Breakfast TV on Wednesday, November 17th.

What started as the usual discussion and analysis of newspaper stories turned highly confrontational when Ken Agyapong got infuriated with his co-panelist, the MP for Ashaiman, Hon Alfred Agbesi and the host of the program, Bismark Brown for what he (Mr. Agyapong) regarded as unnecessary intrusion and “suppression of his views”.

He was commenting on the statement made by Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy, the former Communications Director for Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 General Elections.

A couple of weeks ago, President Mills in his address at a durbar at Bolgatanga, blamed the Kufuor led NPP administration for failing to solve Ghana’s problems in their eight years of governance, adding that they (NDC) inherited an almost collapsed economy from the NPP government.

“We came to meet an economy that was not strong and had difficulties. And a lot of people have complained over the past two years, we did not see anything. I ask them, did they see anything in the previous eight years? We’re determined you should see something but we would have to remove all the bottlenecks and the burden that we inherited,” President Mills reportedly said.

But Dr. Arthur Kennedy, in a sharp retort said “President Mills’ tirade was unfortunate on many accounts.” He opined that “if President Mills cannot concede that there were achievements under the eight-year rule of Kufuor’s administration”, and persistently claims that nothing was seen during his predecessor’s era, then he can be rightly accused of ‘political blindness’.

The spat then began when Hon. Ken Agyapong, who described Mr. Rawlings, leader of the first NDC regime as ‘Jesus Christ and his disciples’, was stopped in mid-sentence by a clearly infuriated Hon. Agbesi.

The host, Bismark Brown appealed to the Assin North MP to mention Mr. Rawlings by name, a request he reluctantly acceded to but explained that it was a description the former President conferred on himself during his tenure as president of the country.

“I am making my analysis and I am building a point, Rawlings when he came to Ghana was portraying himself as Jesus Christ so why are you interrupting my comment. You are questioning my integrity and suppressing my views...Next time I'm not coming to your show...for me to drive all the way here from Burma Camp for you to just suppress my facts... I have not insulted anybody here," he argued.

But Hon Agbesi’s insistence that the NPP MP comments on the issue without bringing the former president into the fray did not go down well with Ken Agyapong, who pointedly told his colleague MP that he was not the host to tell him how to behave or what to say on set.

Referring to the host he said, "Change the topic. I'm not going to comment on that (the topic)...I don't want to put up any behaviour over here. If you like, I'll walk out...If this continues, I am not going to come on this program again. If I can’t express my views and you will (continuously) suppress my comments then, you are questioning my integrity,” he fumed.

The dispute then degenerated into a shouting match with each MP trying to outdo the other. And for well over five minutes of trading verbal invectives, the host of the program was finally able to restore some semblance of order, but Hon. Ken Agyapong dramatically went off in a huff.

In a fit of rage, the outspoken NPP MP ripped the microphone from his shirt and walked out of the studios saying he was not going to partake in the program again, thus interrupting the show and prompting the host to abruptly sign off but not before offering profuse apologies to viewers.