[ 2017-01-28 ]

Bawku Central Member of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga

Agyarko’s ‘bribe’ has been returned; we thought it was sitting allowance – Ayari
Bawku Central Member of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga
says minority members of Parliament’s
Appointments Committee currently vetting nominees
for various portfolios in the new government have
had to return an amount of GH¢3000.00 doled out
to each of them ostensibly to bribe them.

Ayariga told Radio Gold on Friday that they had
initially been handed the money by the Minority
Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak (MP, Asawase) and
assumed it was sitting allowance for members of
the committee, only to later hear that the money
had come from Energy Minister nominee, Mr. Boakye
Agyarko, to influence his approval for the post.

Agyarko has denied the accusation and told Graphic
Online he will have his lawyer respond to the
charge.

Agyarko was vetted last week but has had his
approval frozen because the minority members are
insisting he provides evidence of certain claims
he made while before the committee, including
claims of corruption against former President John
Mahama who he also said was pressured by the World
Bank to take certain decisions.

But Ayariga says the only logical conclusion for
Agyarko to offer the committee money was to
influence their decision, given that Agyarko does
not usually give them money and has no business
transaction with them out of which accruing
dividends had to be shared.

“On Tuesday you know we had Appointments
Committee sitting to consider a number of nominees
and at the end of the sitting, normally we have
our own closed-door meeting to evaluate the
various nominees who appear before us and I think
some members raised the issue of our allowance for
sitting beyond the normal hours and working during
the weekend and the Chairman of the committee
(Joseph Osei-Owusu, MP for Bekwai) assured us that
he had prepared a memo and was going to access
funds to pay the sitting allowances of the
members. So we were expecting that - no I think
either yesterday or the day before yesterday, our
chief whip, Hon. Muntaka called us and said that
the chairman had brought some money and so we
should pass by and pick our money.

“So we passed by and individually we were given
three thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢3000.00) which we
assumed was the allowance due us as committee
members but somehow yesterday we started hearing
rumours that it wasn’t the allowances that
should be given to us from Parliament, it was some
other source. So this morning we had a meeting and
during the meeting we raised the issue with our
Chief Whip and asked what was the source of the
money, in fact we raised the issue with him
yesterday, some of us raised the issue with him
yesterday and he said he was going to check with
the chairman, because he had also assumed that it
was the sitting allowance that he had given him to
give to us.

“So we raised the issue this morning again and
he said he had met with the chairman and the
chairman had said that it was from Boakye Agyarko
who is a nominee, whereupon we as a minority said
no, no, we were not interested in his money, he
should take the money and return it to the
chairman to give it back to Agyarko so we gave the
money back to our Chief Whip and asked him to send
it back to the Chairman to give it to Mr. Agyarko.
So those are the facts that I know. I don’t know
much beyond that. I wasn’t there when the money
was handed over, all I know is that we were told
that that was coming from him and we said we were
not interested and we returned the money back to
our whip to send it back to the chairman of the
committee.”

Asked how he could conclude that the money was
intended as bribe, Ayariga who burst into
laughter, was unequivocal.

“Well, I mean the logical conclusion of course
Agyarko doesn’t normally give us money… so
Agyarko, [we did] no business transaction with
Agyarko for which dividends had come and he is
supposed to share with us and so the only logical
conclusion one could arrive at, you know, is that
this is money intended to influence us especially
since we had withheld his approval based on
certain grounds. So we took a decision that we are
not taking anything from anybody, we will take our
normal sitting allowances as a committee and so
our leader should be mindful anytime that the
chairman brings any money.”

On the phone Friday evening, Agyarko told Graphic
Online Editor, Isaac Yeboah that he was at the
Flagstaff House getting ready for a meeting and
could be available thereafter to speak to the
issue but maintained "I will deal with it. We will
deal with it. I'll have my lawyer respond to it."


The 26-member Appointments Committee has the
following membership:

Majority

Joseph Osei-Owusu (MP for Bekwai and First Deputy
Speaker) – Chairman
Adwoa Safo (MP for Dome Kwabenya and Deputy
Majority Leader)
Kwesi Ameyaw Cheremeh (MP for Sunyani East and
Majority Chief Whip)
Dominic Nitiwul (MP for Bimbilla)
Samuel Atta Kyea (MP for Abuakwa South)
Matthew Opoku Prempeh (Manhyia South)
Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover (MP for Tema
East)
Ursula G. Owusu-Ekuful (MP Ablekuma West)
Joseph Kofi Adda (Navrongo Central)
Joseph Cudjoe (Effia)
Patricia Apeagyei (Asokwa)
O.B. Amoah (Akwapim South)
Kofi Amoako Hene (Atebubu)
Anthony Karbo (Lawra)
Barbara Asher Ayisi (Cape Coast South)
Micheal Yaw Gyato (Krachie)

Minority

Haruna Iddrisu (Minority Leader and MP for Tamale
South) – Ranking Member,
Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak (Minority Chief Whip and
MP for Asawase)
Mahama Ayariga (Bawku Central)
Sampson Ahi (Bodi)
Eric Opoku (Asunafo South)
Bernice Adiku Heloo (Hohoe)
Joseph Yieleh Chireh (Wa West)
Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye (Odododiodioo)
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (North Tongu)
Alhassan Suhuyini (Tamale North)

Source - Graphic.com.gh

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