I was shocked by best friend Ayariga’s claims – Muntaka

The Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, has said he was shocked by the allegations that he and the chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament acted as conduits for Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko to bribe members of the committee.

Denying the bribery accusation by fellow member of the committee, MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, Alhaji Muntaka said: “Mr. Chairman, as you look at my submissions [on] paragraph 11, 12 and 13 that had never happened and I was shocked where he was getting that information.”

He added: “With the greatest respect we [are] honourable members of parliament – I had never discussed an issue of the said money coming from Osei-Owusu to any member neither honourable Boakye Agyarko or Honourable Joseph Osei-Owusu.”

He said he was really taken aback and if for nothing clarification could have been sorted.

The Member of Parliament for Bawku Central and a member of Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Mahama Ayariga accused the minister of attempting to bribe the minority members of the committee, to clear him following his edgy vetting – but they rejected it.

According to him, the energy minister’s bribery attempt was made through the chairman of the committee, Osei Owusu which was given to the minority caucus by its chief whip, Muntaka Mubarak.

But testifying before the five-member ad hoc committee probing the damning bribery scandal that hit the Joseph Osei-Owusu ‘vetting Committee’, Alhaji Muntaka flatly denied ever engaging in any attempt to bribe any member of the committee.

Reading paragraph 12 of his statement to the Committee, he reiterated his earlier stance, stating that: “I have never received from anybody any said money intended to be used or influence my said colleagues as alleged.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Ayariga has told the Committee earlier that he strongly stand by his claim, saying, “it is a fact…that the minority chief whip asked us to come to his office and take some money. That is a fact. I took the money [and] these are facts.”