News:
February 16, 2017
The former deputy Minister for Education, , has petitioned the Ad hoc Committee investigating the bribery allegation that has hit the Appointments Committee of Parliament to allow him appear before the committee to clear his name.
His request follows claims made by the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Joseph Osei Owusu when he appeared as witness before the Ad hoc committee on Wednesday that Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa confessed cooking up the bribery allegation.
Mr. Osei Owusu, appearing before a five-member Committee said “in the conclave, after they had shown that they [Minority] were satisfied and were willing to withdraw their objection and agree for their report to be amended that Hon Osafo Maafo and Boakye Agyarko be passed by consensus, we were going to leave and I said: ‘No. There was this allegation already in the public domain, and Honourable Ayariga is the one alleged to have made that allegation, so, we should discuss that matter after meeting.’
“All the Minority members said was [that]: ‘Mr Speaker, cool down, cool down’. And I said: ‘How can I cool down? This allegation is already in the public domain’. It was at that point that Okudzeto Ablakwa said, ‘Because Agyarko said our president (Mahama) was corrupt, we were spreading the corruption allegation’. The mood in the room changed afterwards.”
But Ablakwa in a Facebook post has since rubbished the claims describing same by Mr. Osei Owusu as nothing but a desperate, malicious and cancerous fabrication which would not be allowed to fester.
The Ad hoc Committee at its first sitting stated that it will invite four witnesses namely; Joseph Osei Owusu, Mr Boakye Agyarko, Mohammed Muntaka and Mr Mahama Ayariga.
However Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa in a letter written on his behalf by his lawyers said ” we have been instructed by our client to convey to you, which we hereby do, his desire to appear before your committee to be heard on the above allegation and to provide evidence that would assist your committee to reach a fair and true conclusion on this substancially important matter of public interest.”
It added: “Please note, Honourable Chairman, that we have advised our client on all the legal and constitutional options available to him should he be refused the opportunity to be heard in his own defence before your committee.”
Background
Mr Mahama Ayariga, on Friday 27 January, claimed GHC100,000 was given to Mr Osei-Owusu by Energy Minister-designate at the time, Mr Boakye Agyarko, to be distributed to Minority MPs on the Appointments 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 Appointments Committee, told Radio Gold in an interview that the Minority MPs rejected the GHS3000 each which was enveloped for them when they later found out that the money was coming from Mr Agyarko as a bribe.