What Mahama Ayariga told bribery committee

Mahama Ayariga has said he has no direct evidence which will prove that members of Parliament’s Appointment Committee received a bribe

Bawku Central Member of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga has said he has no direct evidence which will prove that members of Parliament’s Appointment Committee received a bribe from the then Minister of Energy, Mr Boakye Agyarko, to facilitate his approval.
According to him, his allegation was after he found out that the money was not allowances meant for the previous Appointment Committee sitting.

Appearing before the five-member ad hoc committee of Parliament investigating the bribery allegation, he said “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 OK I would grant them the interview and I will tell them what I knew because I was a member of the committee.”

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 said he received his money which he thought was an allowance for the vetting committee members from the Minority Chief Whip Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka.

The Bawku Central MP also reaffirmed that he had no direct-dealings with either Mr Agyarko or the chairman of the Appointment Committee Joseph Osei-Owusu in receiving the money.

“It is a fact that I received the said money from the minority chief whip… it is also a fact that we heard rumours that Hon Boakye Agyarko bribed the committee. I have never in my life spoken with him, never. The first time I was seeing him physically as a politician and as somebody who goes on air and also on television and on radio was when he appeared before the committee. [That] was the first time I was physically engaging him,” he told the committee.