Pressure group, OccupyGhana has called for an independent police investigation into the bribery scandal that has engulfed Parliament’s Appointment Committee.
The allegations of bribery surfaced when a Minority member of the Appointments Committee, Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku Central, accused the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko of bribing the 10 Minority members on the Committee with GHc 3,000 to pass him.
OccupyGhana in a statement described the allegations as damning to the integrity of Ghana’s Legislature and stressed that the allegations must not be glossed over in the name of partisanship. Thus, the group is adamant the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Service must immediately constitute a team to investigate the allegations.
It also called for the “harshest of parliamentary and possibly criminal sanctions” against those making the allegations if the claims are found to be false.
“We call for an independent Police investigation into the damning allegations and a no-holds-barred criminal prosecution of anyone found to be on the wrong side of Ghanaian law in this scandalous development. In the same vein, we demand the harshest of parliamentary and possibly criminal sanctions for those making the allegations if they prove to be false. We respectfully call on the Police CID to immediately empanel a team to commence investigations and establish the truth, or the lack thereof, in any part of the nation-wrecking allegations.”
“We absolutely refuse to allow Ghana’s Parliament to either add itself to the list of the country’s most corrupt institutions or become a citadel of false allegations, and our demand for this probe will settle the matter of whether or not our legislative arm of government can be trusted to uphold the rule of Law in the Ghanaian Republic,” the statement concluded.
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