Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak Muntaka, has revealed that he was shocked upon hearing claims by his colleague MP and “best friend” Mahama Ayariga that the members of the appointments committee were bribed to approve the nomination of Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko.
He told the Ghartey Committee hearing the matter on Monday, 20 February that he was taken aback by the allegation made by Mr Ayariga that he was used as a conduit in the bribery scandal.
“Mr Chairman, as you look at my submission: paragraphs 11, 12 and 13, that (bribery) had never happen. I was shocked where he (Mahama Ayariga) was getting that information [from] because I thought that with the greatest respect we are honourable members of parliament.
“I never discussed an issue of the said money coming from Osei-Owusu to any member; neither Hounrable Boakye Agyarko or Hounorable Joe Osei-Owusu or any other person, to members. So, I was really taken aback because I thought that if for nothing, some clarification would have been sought from me, or, at least, some sharing of information could have happened between us, so that is why I was taken aback.”
Mr Ayariga, on Friday 27 January, told Radio Gold in an interview that the Minority MPs first accepted the money because they were under the impression that it was their sitting allowance but got alarmed and decided to return it after they heard rumours that the money was coming from Mr Agyarko.
“We were expecting our committee allowances from the chairman, so, when we were called by our leader to come and take our money, we took it knowing that that is our allowance, so, as for the quantum we cannot tell how much money he [Mr Agyarko] might have given to the chairman, so, there are all sort of speculations about what sort of quantum he is alleged to have given, but what we know is what came to us as individuals, that is what we can bear testimony to: whether it’s GHS1 or GHS2, no matter how small it is, what we know is what was given to us and we found out later that it was coming from him, so, as for the quantum, it’s not important. For me the most important thing is that we were expecting to be given our committee sitting allowances, and we were promised by our chairman that it will come very soon, and we were called to pick up money from our Whip, we picked it up and assumed that it was our allowances and then later we heard rumours in the house and we called our leader and asked him: where is the money coming from? He said it came from the Chairman but chairman said it was coming from Boakye Agyarko, so, that is where we realised that we can’t take money from Boakye Agyarko, so, we asked him to take his money back, we are not interested. The quantum is insignificant, even if he had brought GHS1million, we will still return it to him,” Mr Ayariga alleged.
The bribery allegation followed the reluctance by the Minority side of the Appointments Committee to recommend Mr Agyarko for passage over certain comments he made against former President John Mahama during his vetting.
All the actors named by Mr Ayariga in the bribery scandal have denied anything of the sort ever happened. Mr Ayariga and two other colleague MPs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Alhassan Suhuyini, subsequently petitioned the Speaker to probe the matter since they insist there was an attempted bribery.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
