Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the bribery allegation against Parliament’s Appointments Committee was in retaliation for corruption allegations leveled against the former president, Joseph Osei-Owusu has said.
According to him, Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa told him and some members of the Committee that “they were spreading the corruption allegation” because the Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko had labelled former President John Mahama as corrupt.
Mr Osei-Owusu made this known Wednesday at the preliminary hearing of the ad-hoc committee constituted to investigate the bribery allegation that the Energy Minister offered some GH¢3,000 to the minority side of the Appointments Committee.
In his submission, Mr Osei-Owusu told the panel that when the news of the bribery allegation broke, he, together with some members from both sides of the Appointments Committee were in a meeting at the Speaker’s office to discuss and take a decision on whether or not to pass the nominees by consensus or by majority.
He said Mr Ayariga, who was in the Speaker’s room at the time the news broke, was attributed to have made the allegation on Accra-based Radio Gold.
Those present in the room, according to Mr Osei-Owusu were Mr Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, Sampson Ahi, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Joseph Yileh Chireh and Eric Opoku.
According to him, when a consensus was reached for the nominees to be passed by Parliament, he asked that the matter of bribery allegation be discussed but “all the minority members said oh, Mr Speaker take your time, cool down, cool down and I said how can I cool down… [when] the person who made the allegation is here.”
He stated however that, “it was at that point that honourable Okudzeto Ablakwa said that because Agyarko said our president was corrupt, we were spreading the corruption allegation. So then the mood in the room changed. We all laughed to it and said oh so this was all there was to it. I then dropped my insistence.”
According to Mr Osei-Owuau, in his report on the floor of Parliament, he included in the statement that the accusation, according to the minority, was in retaliation for the corruption allegations against the former president.
“All the people who were in the meeting were in that room that evening. If that were not so, I would have thought that somebody would object what I was saying on the floor of the house. That will be borne out by the Hansard,” he said.
According to Mr Osei-Owusu, Mr Okudzeto Ablkwa upheld his earlier statement when the MP for Adansi Asokwa, K. T. Hammond sought to verify his submission on the floor of Parliament from the North Tongu MP.
“That same evening when we were leaving Parliament, honourable KT Hammond walked up to me to verify what I said on the floor and fortunately Okudzeto walked to us and KT Hammond asked him and he said “yes, we wanted you to feel the same heat that John Mahama is feeling.”
“This was on the corridor walking up to our offices and Okudzeto said this in a response to a question put up by KT Hammond,” he said.
Mr Osei-Owusu noted therefore that he was surprised to have heard on radio the following day that Mr Ayariga was still standing by his earlier comments made on Radio Gold.
“After that we expected that the matter would die because parliament rose that evening after 7…on the way to Koforidua I received report that Ayariga had taken to social media to say that the allegation he made was true,” he said.
Source: Dan Kwasi Prince // www.dailyviewgh.com / Ghana
Writer’s email dailyviewgh@gmail.com
