Prof. Dodoo in trouble; Parliament summons him before Privileges Committee
Parliament has summoned Prof. Alex Dodoo, a lecturer at the School of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Ghana, to appear before its Privileges Committee for allegedly attacking members of Parliament (MPs) over comments they made about the suspended Ebola vaccine trial.
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The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, who issued the summons, agreed with members that Prof. Dodoo's comments and description of MPs, after they had expressed their views on the matter, were unsavoury and added that he needed to appear to explain the comments.
The MP for Tamale South, Mr Haruna Iddrisu; MP for Manhyia South, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh; Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Government Assurances, Mr Emmanuel Bedzra, among others, reacting to a statement made by the Minister of Health, Mr Alex Segbefia, on the vaccine trial on the floor of Parliament yesterday, asked that Prof. Dodoo be made to appear before the committee.
Background
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.
"What shocked me is that I heard an MP say that do we have systems. Does that MP not know that we have the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) which is being regulated by the Public Health Act of 2012 and that that organisation is mandated by our laws to carry out clinical studies? If these MPs had just taken the most casual of checks with the body licensed to do this, they would not have made such statements," he said.
Prof. Dodoo said it was "a shame" that MPs had asked whether the trial had been carried out on mice and chimpanzees when the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health could have easily obtained clarity on the issue from the FDA which is the institution mandated to carry out such trials.
Speaker's ruling
Mr Adjaho said he had made the ruling because he had listened to the statement made by the Minister of Health in the House yesterday and was of the opinion that some of the issues contained in the statement were not different from what the MPs had said last week.
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"I have also read the press statement issued by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and some of the concerns they raised are not different from what members have raised on the floor, " he said.
"The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is made up of experts, has reservations. I do not think we in the House should not," he said.
He expressed gratitude to the Minister of Health for being sensitive and for suspending the vaccine trial, adding that if he had not, Parliament would have passed a bill under a certificate of urgency in the course of the week to curtail the powers of the FDA.
“I refer him accordingly. Maybe he has some information that we do not. He will help the House in that direction so that together, this House can take the right decision with regard to the vaccine trial," he said.
Mr Adjaho also directed the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health to work with the ministry on the matter and report to the House in three weeks.
Prof. Dodoo’s reaction
But in an interview on Joy FM yesterday, Prof. Dodoo said he had not received any official invitation from Parliament by way of a phone call or a letter, adding quickly that if he received any such invitation he would gladly honour it.
“When that invite comes I will happily and gladly and respectfully honour the invitation to be a guest of Parliament.”
He said he would be very pleased to answer the questions that would be posed to him. “I would be truthful, I would be factual and give the comments I have made as a scientist. I believe that facts are sacred,” Prof. Dodoo said.
On whether he had described Parliament as being ignorant, he said he rather said their decision to halt the trials was regrettable and expressed disquiet about the utterances of some members as carried by national media.
“If these were construed as such, I believe I have to wait for the questions from Parliament and answer appropriately,” he added.