Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central in the Upper East Region, Mahama Aayariga, has incurred the wrath of Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko.
This follows Mr. Ayariga’s allegation on Accra-based FM station- Radio Gold– on Thursday, January 26, 2017 that the then energy minister-designate attempted to bribe the minority members on the Appointments Committee to approve his nomination.
According to the Bawku Central MP, each of his colleagues, including himself, received Ghc3,000 from their leader on the committee, who is the Minority Chief Whip and also the MP for Asawase constituency in the Ashanti Region, Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed.
He said initially, they thought it was their sitting allowances but it later turned out that the money was coming from Mr. Boakye Agyarko to buy his approval which was pending, “because of his [Boakye Agyarko’s] corruption allegation against former President John Dramani Mahama during his vetting.”
“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 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, Mr. 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,” Mahama Ayariga said.
But Mr. Boakye Agarko, including the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Mr. Joseph Osei-Owusu, and the acting Public Affairs Director of Parliament, Ms. Kate Addo, had since denied the accusation.
According to the embattled energy minister, the allegation was meant to smear his hard earned reputation.
“I have not given a single soul a penny. If anybody can cross the heart and say I have given them money, let them step forward.
…I say so, that it is not true without the fear of contradiction. It is a fabrication because the allegation is that I said Mahama was corrupt so they also have to smear me to say that I am corrupt and I have no right to accuse Mahama of being corrupt.”
“I am not afraid of man, but if that is how we are going to live our national lives, so be it. But I don’t believe it is the right way,” Mr. Boakye Agyarko was reported to have said this on Citi FM at the weekend when he spoke on the matter.
Meanwhile, he said he had engaged his lawyers to look into the substance of the issue and advise him appropriately on what action to take.
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