I didn't insult you but if you feel insulted I'm sorry; Prof. Dodoo tells MPs

WHO scientist Professor Alex Dodoo has told Parliament’s Privileges Committee he did not and could not have slighted parliament as is being claimed.

Prof. Dodoo said he has too much respect for the legislative body to have insulted any individual or the institution of Parliament.

But if any Member of Parliament or the House as an institution feels insulted, the Lecturer at the School of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Ghana, said to the extent that any MP or group of MPs feels insulted by the comments he made on an Ebola vaccine trial, he is sorry.

It is not in his character and the nature of his work does not permit him, he insisted, to insult anyone or institution especially a respectable institution such as Parliament.

Prof. Dodoo is facing an inquiry after MPs took offence of comments he made on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show and other media houses relating to an Ebola vaccine trial in Hohoe, Volta Region.

The MPs, ordering the suspension of the planned trial alleged that the professor attacked their integrity when he said, “People have gotten it so wrong and it is sad. It is sad for the country, it is sad for science.”

MP for Ho West, Emmanuel Bedzrah, who first raised the concerns about the trial claimed Prof. Dodoo had called MPs ignorant.

In an apparent revision of his case, Mr. Bedzrah said the scientist asked MPs to shut up if they didn’t have sufficient information on the matter.

Counsel for the World Health Organisation scientist, Yonny Kulendi probably setting the tone for a heated cross-examination at a later date, told Chairman of the Committee, ebo Barton Odro, any future comments during the hearing should not be construed as demeaning the House of Parliament.

He said Prof. Dodoo wished to apologise for any comment that may have been implied even in the slightest sense, that he was being disrespectful to Parliament or parliamentarians.

After a number of witnesses were called, Mr. Kulendi cross-examined the Ho Central MP briefly and forced a comment for which Mr. Bedzrah had to apologise.

Hearing has been adjourned to allow Mr. Kulendi study documents produced by MPs and a representative of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Joy FM’s Super Morning Show host, Kojo Yankson, who is also a witness, was not called.