[ 2017-02-20 ]

Mahama Ayariga

I’ve never spoken to Agyarko – Mahama Ayariga
Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga has disclosed he
has never in his life spoken to Energy Minister
Boakye Agyarko following a bribery allegation he
has made against the leadership of the
Appointments Committee and Mr Agyarko.

Mr Ayariga, a member of the Appointments
Committee, has alleged that Minority MPs rejected
GHS3000 given to them by Mr Joe Osei-Owusu,
chairman of the Appointments Committee, through
Minority Chief Whip Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka,
after they had found out the money was coming from
Mr Agyarko, then Minister-designate, to induce the
NDC MPs to approve his nomination after he
appeared before the committee.

However, Mr Ayariga, who appeared before the
Ghartey Committee on Monday, 20 February, the body
established by parliament to probe the bribery
allegation, told the committee he never dealt with
Mr Agyarko and had never spoken to him.

“I have never in my life spoken with him, never.
The first time I was seeing him physically as a
politician and as somebody who goes on air and
also on television and on radio was when he
appeared before the committee. [That] was the
first time I was physically engaging him,” he
told the committee.

Mr Ayariga, on Friday 27 January, told Radio Gold
in an interview that the Minority MPs first
accepted the money because they were under the
impression that the money was their sitting
allowance but got alarmed and decided to return
the money after they heard rumours that the money
was coming from Mr Agyarko.

“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 [Mr
Agyarko] 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 alleged.

The bribery allegation followed the reluctance by
the Minority side of the Appointments Committee to
recommend Mr Agyarko for passage over certain
comments he made against former President John
Mahama during his vetting.

All the actors named by Mr Ayariga in the bribery
scandal have denied anything of the sort ever
happened.

Mr Ayariga and two other colleague MPs, Samuel
Okudzeto Ablakwa and Alhassan Suhuyini,
subsequently petitioned the Speaker to probe the
matter since they insist there was an attempted
bribery.

Source - classfmonline.com

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