Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga, has denied claims by the 1st Deputy Speaker of Parliament that he has withdrawn his bribery allegations against Mr. Boakye Agyarko.
In a Facebook post, the MP said Mr. Joseph Osei-Owusu’s claims that he has retracted his allegations that Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko offered Minority Members of Parliament 3,000 cedis to approve his nomination, were baseless.
Mr. Ayariga told Accra-based Radio Gold he and other Minority MPs were given money and when they inquired about the source of the money, the Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, informed them that he had been told the money came from Mr. Agyarko.
“We as a Minority said, ‘no, no, we were not interested in his money’, he (Muntaka) should take the money and then return it to the Chairman (of the Appointments Committee of Parliament) to give it back to Agyarko so we gave the money back to our Chief Whip and asked him to send it back to the Chairman.
“Those are the facts that I know, I don’t know much beyond that. I wasn’t there when the money was handed over, all I know is that we were told that that was coming from him and we said we were not interested and we returned the money to our Whip to send it back to send it back to the Chairman of the Committee,” he told the station
Subsequently, Mr. Osei-Owusu told Joy News the Bawku Central MP had withdrawn the allegations and apologised.
But Mr. Ayariga posted on Facebook; “This evening my attention has been drawn to a news story on myjoyonline.com claiming that I have withdrawn a claim of bribery I made against Boakye Agyarko, the President’s nominee for the Ministry of Energy.
“Let me state categorically that I have not withdrawn any allegation against the nominee. The basis for such a withdrawal and apology does not exist because the Minority Members actually received some sums of money from the leadership which came from the nominee.
“I wish to also add that I was not making up any facts to equalise for the bribery allegation against President John Mahama. My colleagues and I actually returned the money to be given back to Mr. Agyarko, who we are were told gave the money.
“The myjoyonline story is inaccurate. I hope they do the right thing and retract and apologise.
“Thank you.”