Ayariga Sets Parliament ‘Ablaze’

By Emmanuel Akli The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central in the Upper East Region, Mahama Ayariga, appears to have set the Parliament of Ghana ‘ablaze’ with a serious bribery allegation that has not been proven. The immediate past Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovations went on air and alleged that the Minister […]

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By Emmanuel Akli

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central in the Upper East Region, Mahama Ayariga, appears to have set the Parliament of Ghana ‘ablaze’ with a serious bribery allegation that has not been proven.

The immediate past Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovations went on air and alleged that the Minister for Energy, Mr. Boakye Agyarko, attempted to bribe the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs on the Appointments Committee with GH¢3,000 each to influence them to confirm him as minister.

According to Mr. Ayariga, the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntakah, had told them that the money was given to him by the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Joe Osei Wusu, and that it was coming from Boakye Agyarko.

But, according to him, they (Minority MPs) rejected the money and asked their Chief Whip to return it to the source.

Ayariga, a lawyer by profession, told Radio Gold: “This morning, (referring to Friday January 27), we had a meeting, and during the meeting, we raised the issue with our Chief Whip and asked him what was the source of the money, and he said he was going to check from the Chairman, because he had also assumed that it was the sitting allowance that he had given him to give to us.

“So he raised the issue this morning again, and he said he had met with the Chairman, and the Chairman had said it was from Boakye Agyarko, who is a nominee. So we, as Minority, said we were not interested in the money.

“He should take the money and then 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 give it to Mr. Agyarko.”

The wild allegation has, however, ruffled feathers in Parliament, with all the protagonists in the drama denying the charge being made against them by Mr. Ayariga.

Mr Boakye Agyarko, who is alleged to have given out the money, has flatly denied the charge. Similarly, Mr. Joe Osei Owusu, Chairman of the Appointments Committee, has also gone public to deny the allegation, and has actually threatened to seek remedy in court, after he had made a statement on the floor of the House.

According to Joe Osei Owusu, he never handed over any money to Muntakah claiming that it was coming from Mr Boakye Agyarko, and that Ayariga knows that he was lying, because he (Chairman) does not have that kind of relationship with the Minority.

Speaking on Joy FM yesterday, Mr Osei Owusu, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bekwai in the Ashanti Region, said during a leadership meeting in Parliament, the Minority withdrew the allegation, saying that they said those things because of the allegation Mr Boakye Agyarko made against former President Mahama that he was corrupt, a claim which has been denied by Ayariga.

But the principal witness in the whole caboodle, Muntakah, broke his silence on the same Joy FM platform, and insisted that the Chairman of the Appointments Committee did not give him any money to be given to his minority colleagues.

According to Muntakah, both himself and Mahama Ayariga are Muslims, and he (Ayariga) knows that he was making wild allegation. The Asawase MP swore by the Holy Quran that he never gave any money to Ayariga and his colleagues.

A few hours after Chairman Osei Owusu and Muntakah Mubarak had denied the allegation, Parliament also issued an official statement, which was signed by the Director of Public Affairs,  Kate Addo, pouring cold water on Ayariga’s allegation.

“Parliament has noted with grave concern, allegations that the leadership and members of the Appointments Committee have been bribed by some of the President’s nominees to facilitate the recommendation of approval of their nomination as ministers to the House.

“Parliament will like to state categorically, and without any equivocation, that these allegations are frivolous and vexatious, and should be discarded. Parliament attaches a lot of importance to its constitutional duties, and abhors practices that will not only affect its work, but also bring the institution into disrepute.

“Therefore, extreme care is taken, and thorough background checks are made before chairpersons to the various committees are appointed.

“This is to ensure that the works they oversee are meticulously carried. Parliament will, therefore, like to state that no such event has taken place, and anybody having any information to the contrary, must resort to the laws of the land and take the appropriate action for redress,” Kate Addo’s statement said.

Notwithstanding this statement, the Bawku Cetral MP says he still stands by his allegation, and that Parliament, which issued the official statement, did not call him to find out whether he could prove the allegation or otherwise.

Meanwhile, during the debate for the approval of the ministers-designate, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, dropped the hint that those making the bribery allegation would be severely sanctioned if they fail to prove the case. The Suame MP was not happy with the allegation, which has attacked the integrity of Parliament. 

It would be recalled that the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Marin Amidu, recently accused both the 5th and the 6th Parliaments of corruption.

“The partisanship, cronyism, patronage, ethnicity, and endemic corruption of the looter governments of the fifth and sixth governments of the Fourth Republic had been allowed by the majority to infect the fabric and conduct of legislative business in the House. Corruption became endemically pervasive in the fifth and sixth parliaments, because of the deliberate acts of infection by the presidents and governments, whose members made up the majority in those parliaments,” Amidu said in one of his usual public statements.

He continued: “Nobody better explains and articulates the purposeful and deliberate collusion between the Fifth and Sixth Parliaments and Executives under the Fourth Republican Constitution to set the Constitution asunder, than its Minority Leader, the Honourable Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, on 6th January 2017.

“He confirmed the majority and patriotic beliefs of citizens that the majority in Fifth and Sixth Parliaments kowtowed to the looter governments of that epoch, in such a way that due diligence was not done in the passage and approval of loans and international agreements, which were usually passed with alacrity. The then Minority Leader, who has since become the Majority Leader, is reported to have underscored the general belief of the more politically conscious members of the citizenry that: ‘If Parliament was a bit more diligent in its approval of loans and was more transparent in handling motions, parliamentary democracy would have been deepened’.”

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