News:
February 20, 2017
Bawku Central Member of Parliament Mahama Ayariga says news about the bribery allegation made against the leadership of the Appointments committee of parliament, emerged from an Accra-based Radio Gold.
According to him, he got wind of the scandal that had started going viral on various media platforms on Radio Gold upon which he was later called by the station to respond to the matter that unfolded.
“The bribery allegation came out through Radio Gold. And Radio Gold started it, I think in the afternoon, and in the form of a breaking news. This must have been around 2:00 O’clock in the afternoon and then it went to social media, it went online. I got wind of it online.
I didn’t hear it but I just saw it on whatsapp that Radio Gold has said this , then subsequently I got a call from Radio Gold asking for an interview with me on this issue that they had put out. I thought about it and I said Okay I would grant them the interview and I will tell them what I knew because I was a member of the committee,” Ayariga told the Ad hoc committee in its sitting Monday, February, 20, 2017.
According to him, before a supposed conclave meeting by some members of the committee, he’d already granted the Radio station an interview to react to the matter that generated from the media.
He confirmed that indeed he received the bribery money from the Minority Chief Whip, which he initially thought was their sitting allowance but when he was told it was a bribe coming from a ministerial nominee he together with other minority members on the appointment committee decided to return the money.
Mahama Ayariga appeared before the Joe Ghartey-led Ad hoc committee Monday to answer questions of allegations of bribery which he’d made against the leadership of the Appointments Committee.