Posted on:
www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Tuesday, January
31, 2017
The Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak, is being pursued
by his colleague National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs)
over a bribe allegation made by his colleague MP, Mahama Ayariga.He
denied ever sharing envelopes containing GH¢3,000 each to members of the
Appointments Committee of the House to approve the nomination of Boakye Agyarko
as Minister of Energy; and this appears to have incensed his fellow party members.
After Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku Central, had gone on pro-NDC Radio Gold to make the wild allegation
on Friday, Alhaji Muntaka shot the issue down the following day when he denied
flatly ever giving money to the minority members on the committee, which is
vetting ministers nominated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to serve
in the NPP government.
Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, a minority member of the committee, is also
said to have said on Montie Fm, a
sister station of Radio Gold, that he
didn’t know anything about the alleged bribe, even though he was supposed to
have benefitted.
According to Ayariga, Muntaka had said that the money was given to
him by the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Joe Osei-Owusu - who is also
the First Deputy Speaker and insisted later that Mr. Osei-Owusu had confirmed
to him (Ayariga) that the money came from Mr. Agyarko.
Outright Denial
The wild allegation was flatly denied by Mr. Osei-Owusu and Alhaji
Muntaka as well as Boakye Agyarko.
DAILY
GUIDE learnt that the whole bribery scandal is also aimed at testing the leadership
of Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader, as some people are allegedly trying to
undermine him.
Haruna Iddrisu, the NDC MP for Tamale South, has broken his silence
and said he supports full-scale investigation into the bribery allegation as Majority
Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu had earlier called for.
Full Scale
Investigation
Haruna Iddrisu said during the vetting of the Minister-designate for
Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr Anthony Akoto-Osei that he was in support of a full-scale
investigation into the bribery scandal that has rocked the Appointments
Committee, saying the scandal has the potential to undermine the integrity of parliament.
Apart from Mahama Ayariga, a number of NDC MPs have come out to
claim that Muntaka gave them money which they were emphatic was coming from Mr.
Agyarko and virtually called him (Muntaka) a liar.
MPs like Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (North Tongu) and Alhassan Suhuyini
(Tamale North) have variously claimed that indeed they were given envelopes.
Inusah Fuseini
Tamale Central MP, Inusah Fuseini, was on Joy FM saying that “Alhaji Muntaka is not being candid.”
He said he had spoken to the key actors in the scandal and could say
on authority that the Minority Chief Whip lied when he said he did not give any
money to Mahama Ayariga.
"When I spoke to him, I realized he was worried. He feels that
the integrity of parliament is more important than uncovering the rot," Fuseini
said adding, "He places the integrity of parliament higher and would
rather cover up."
He wondered why Muntaka would swear by ‘Allah’ on the matter and
suggested it was not necessary.
According to Inusah Fuseini, all the minority members on the
Appointments Committee were each called and paid the amount and added that at
the point of receipt they all knew it was not the sitting allowance because
allowances are only paid quarterly, contrary to the claim by Ayariga that they
received the money initially believing it was their sitting allowance.
He also revealed that it was Samson Ahi, NDC MP for Bodi, who later
told the minority MPs that the money came from the Energy Minister-designate -
something that might have forced them to return the money.
Ablakwa’s Angle
Okudzeto Ablakwa also entered the fray, saying that Alhaji Muntaka
lied when he said the minority members were never given any amount of money.
“Truly, we were given money…I was shocked when Muntaka denied the
bribery allegation. Someone called to inform me but I was shocked until later
in the day when I heard the tape…I must say I wasn’t surprised, I was
shocked…,” he said.
“Initially, we thought the money was our allowances because the
previous day, the minority leader said he had raised a memo to demand our
allowances, but we started hearing rumours that the money was coming from
Agyarko…Samson Ahi, Eric Opoku, Mahama Ayariga went to the minority leader to
ask if indeed it was coming from one of the nominees - Boakye Agyarko - and he
confirmed it,” he added.
Ablakwa continued, “We held a minority caucus meeting and we agreed
that we cannot accept any money from the nominee…I returned my money to Hon
Muntaka, and I have a witness, that day; Nii Lante Vanderpuiye was in his
office and he can confirm that I returned my envelope.”
Okudzeto Ablakwa disclosed that he personally handed the money over
to Muntaka in the latter’s office in the presence of the Odododiodioo MP, Edwin
Nii Lante Vanderpuiye, and had since been shocked to hear his leader denying he
distributed monies to the minority MPS.
“I returned my money and that of Mahama Ayariga to Muntaka in his
office. Hon Nii Lante Vanderpuye was in his office when I returned it. He said
to me that ‘you have brought your money and that is good;’ some have brought
theirs and I am waiting to collect all of them and return them…,” he said.
The MP also said that he has no issues against Boakye Agyarko, hence
won’t tell a lie against him.
“I don’t have any issue with anybody because I have gone through
this vetting twice and the NPP minority then didn’t do this to me so why would
I want to cook this story against anybody? There were fourteen people so why
would we want to tell a lie about just him, knowing very well that the Bible
says ‘don’t bear false witness against your neighbor,’” he posited.
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