"If you say I should apologize, I apologize" - Can you call this apology?

The five-member committee formed by Parliament which was chaired by Hon. Joe Ghartey, Minister of Railway Development and also Member of Parliament for Essikado has
found Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga guilty of
contempt of Parliament. 

Joe Ghartey, Chair of the committee moved the adoption of the 50-page committee report to the house with the Rt. Hon. Speaker, Aaron Micahel Ocquaye presiding. 

From the report, Mahama Ayariga failed to produce any evidence to substantiate his bribery allegations against the Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, Hon. Joe Osei Owusu and Minority Chief Whip and a member of parliament for the people of Asawasi in the Ashanti region, Hon. Muntaka Mohammed. 

Hon. Joe Ghartey stated in his presentation that all statements made by the Hon. Ayariga in the media and other platforms were nothing more than  just rumors, stating a “multiplicity of rumors does not constitute a fact.” 

The Joe Ghartey committee, therefore, concluded that there was no evidence to support the claims made by the Bawku Central MP Hon. Mahama Ayariga and hence the allegations could not be proven. 

Both the Majority and minority leaders in the House, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu and Hon. Haruna Iddrisu respectively commended the Joe Ghartey committee for their work and prayed that the report would signify a new beginning for the house. 

 Rt. Hon. Ocquaye, the Speaker of Parliament then put the question and with the majority voting to adopt the report, Hon. Mahama Ayariga was therefore invited to the Bar of parliament to apologize and be reprimanded. 

However, the 2nd deputy speaker of the house and longest serving Member of Parliament Hon. Alban Bagbin pleaded for the Hon. Ayariga to render an unqualified apology from where he stood in the chamber which the speaker obliged. 

But Hon. Mahama Ayariga questioned the credibility of the work done by the Joe Ghartey committee and concluded by stating “Mr. Speaker if you say I should apologize for that, I apologize” 

This statement threw the house into some disturbances but the Speaker of the house stepped in to adjourn sitting to Friday, March 31, 2017. 

The other committee members include; Hon. Ben Abdallah Banda (Offinso South MP), Hon. Ama Pomaa Boateng (Juaben MP), Hon. Benson Tongo Baba (Talensi MP) and Hon. Magnus Kofi Amoatey (Yilo Krobo MP).