The Speaker of Parliament, Mike Aaron Ocquaye, has granted pardon to Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga after he was found guilty of contempt of parliament by a five-member committee tasked to investigate a bribery allegation the lawmaker made against the leadership of the Appointments Committee.
The Speaker in his ruling on Friday, 7 April, said: “In all the circumstances of this case, I have come to the conclusion that the Honourable Ayariga should be shown mercy on this occasion. May he go and sin no more. He is warned never to peddle such expensive rumours in his affairs in this house.
“I must also extend a warning to some four or five honorable members who deemed it proper to make untoward lies apparently in support of Ayariga regarding the conduct for which the Honorable Ayariga has now apologised.”
The Joe Ghartey Committee, in its report, said it found no evidence to support the allegations.
The Committee came to the conclusion that Mr Ayariga failed to prove that Mr Boakye Agyarko, the Energy Minister, gave money to Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, Chairman of the Appointments Committee, to be distributed to the committee members with a view to bribing them to approve his nomination (by consensus).
Presenting the report of the committee to the House, Mr Joe Ghartey, the Chairman of the Committee, said Mr Ayariga failed to adduce any evidence to substantiate his claim bribery.
“Everything he said was nothing more than rumours,” Mr Ghartey said, adding that “multiplicity of rumours does not constitute a fact.”
He said by publishing rumours about bribery allegations against members, Mr Ayariga had injured the reputation of Parliament and soiled the dignity of the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Osei-Owusu.
The committee recommended that the Bawku Central MP be reprimanded in accordance with Parliamentary regulations and the Constitution of the country.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
