Three minority MPs: Mahama Ayariga, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Alhassan Suhuyini have petitioned Speaker of Parliament Mike Oquaye to probe a recent bribery allegation levelled against Energy Minister-nominee Boakye Agyarko in connection with his vetting by parliament’s Appointments Committee.
Mr Ayariga on Friday claimed Mr Agyarko, whose approval had been frozen pending the determination of certain issues, dished out GHS3000 as bribe to each of the minority members on the committee with the aim to influence them so they approve his nomination without further delay.
Mr Ayariga claimed the money was given to Committee Chair Joe Osei Owusu by Mr Agyarko who in turn channeled it through Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak to the MPs, who, according to the Bawku Central MP, subsequently rejected it.
“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 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 told Accra-based Radio Gold on Friday.
However, all the actors he mentioned in the bribery saga have denied anything of the sort took place. While both Mr Agyarko and Mr Osei Owusu have threatened court action, Mr Muntaka Mubarak has sworn on the Qu’ran that he never gave any such bribe to Mr Ayariga, who insists there was a bribery attempt.
In a joint petition to the Speaker, Mr Ayariga, Mr Ablakwa and Mr Suhuyini say: “We the three members of parliament will subject ourselves fully o the processes of the enquiry.”
Below is the full petition:
Rt. Hon. Speaker
Parliament of Ghana
Parliament House
Accra
Sunday, 29th January 2017
Rt. Honourable Speaker,
REQUEST FOR INTERNAL ENQUIRY INTO ALLEGATION OF ATTEMPTED BRIBERY OF SOME MEMBERS OF THE APPOINTMENTS COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENT BY A MINISTERIAL NOMINEE
This is a joint request by Hon. Mahama Ayariga (MP) Bawku Central Constituency, Hon Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (MP) North Tongu Constituency and Hon Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini (MP) Tamale North Constituency to you the Rt. Hon Speaker of Parliament.
We jointly request you to carry out an internal enquiry into the veracity of the claims made by us in the allegation of attempted bribery of the Minority Members of the Appointments Committee of Parliament by a ministerial nominee. We, the three (3) Members of Parliament, will subject ourselves fully to the processes of the enquiry.
Please, accept our highest regards.
Thank you.
——-Signed——
Hon Mahama Ayariga (MP) Bawku Central Constituency
——-Signed——-
Hon Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (MP) North Tongu Constituency
——–Signed——–
Hon Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini (MP) Tamale North Constituency
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
