[ 2017-01-28 ]

Bribery allegations dangerous for parliament – Coker
The bribery scandal allegedly involving Energy
Minister Boakye Agyarko and some members of the
Appointments Committee of parliament should not be
swept under the carpet due to the gravity of the
matter, Ade Coker, Greater Accra Regional Chairman
of the opposition National Democratic Congress
(NDC), has said.

According to him, this development has the
propensity of crippling the progress parliament
has made over these years.

Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga confirmed that a
quantum of money was given to Mr Osei Owusu by Mr
Agyarko to be distributed to Minority MPs on the
committee with the intention of influencing them
to give him the nod so he could be sworn in as
Minister.

Mr Ayariga, who is a member of the Committee, told
Accra-based Radio Gold in an interview on Friday
that the Minority MPs outrightly rejected the
GHS3000 each, which was enveloped for them when
they later found out from Mr Osei Owusu that the
money was coming from Mr Agyarko.

According to Mr Ayariga, 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 to bribe them.

“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 might have given to
the chairman, so there are all sorts 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 would 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 [couldn’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 said.

Speaking on TV3’s New Day on Saturday January
28, Mr Coker said: “This matter should be
investigated thoroughly.
“If it had been the NDC, these people (NPP)
would have organised a series of press conferences
on the matter to tell the whole world.”

Source - classfmonline.com

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