MP Confesses to Fraud

Majority & Minority leaders hint at legal consequence

"I was standing there looking very stupid in front of the Embassy. When I returned from Abidjan, I thought I had made a fool of myself. To be honest with you, I came back here and I felt I had been very stupid. It was bad and an embarrassment to my party, the government and the President."

The speaker is Hon. Peter Kweku Amoabeng, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Lower West Akim - the venue is his sitting room at house number 32 SSNIT Flats Road and the topic which drew these solemn confessions from the lips of the MP was a case of fraudulent misrepresentation to Parliament, an Accra High Court, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Judicial Service and Ghana's Embassy in Abidjan.

The MP told The Chronicle, in an interview, that he did not know the woman and the two kids he presented to Parliament as his children and wife respectively and that he was only helping them "without a little bit of thought."

According to the MP "I was very furious at the woman because they fooled me. Even though I know that she is not my wife, I thought that the lady would coach the children and that they will know each other. That wasn't the case."

The confession of the MP is viewed against the backdrop that the MP fraudulently told the august House of Parliament that Ms. Jane Amoabeng, a phony woman bearing two kids was his wife and that he was traveling to Austria for vacation with his family.

The MP also got two people to sign a statutory declaration before an Accra High Court that indeed Ms. Jane Amoabeng was his wife. This fraudulent misrepresentation compelled the Judicial Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to certify the claim that the MP was customarily married to the MP in 1979.

Continuing with his confessions, the MP told The Chronicle he was just trying to help the lady and that "the story is true but please forgive me."

When Chronicle queried him about whether he thought of the implications of his fraudulent activities he said that after a sober reflection on the matter he couldn't eat and he prayed over it for God's forgiveness, adding that he was in a mess when he returned to Ghana after that fraudulent escapade.

Continuing with his confessions Hon. Kweku Amoabeng said, "I realized it was too bad. It doesn't auger well for the country. It doesn't auger well for the party; I prayed about it; I said to myself, what am I am going to do? It is bad that a new MP should experience all this. This is something like a big lesson.

In a related development, Linda Akrasi, our Parliamentary Correspondent reports that the Minority and Deputy Majority leaders in Parliament have said that the MP will face the full rigors of the law if the allegations as reported in The Chronicle are found to be true.

The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin told The Chronicle in a telephone interview that Members of Parliament are citizens of the country and are bound by the same laws as any other citizen.

He said according to the laws of the country, if you are a convict you are not qualified to be a member of the honorable house and therefore if a member is found guilty on conviction then he has to lose his seat.

The minority leader was responding to a front page story carried in yesterday's edition of the Chronicle in which the MP for Lower West Akim North is involved in a fraudulent misrepresentation to the Parliament, an Accra High Court, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Judicial Service.

Hon. Bagbin noted that the conduct that is being reported on borders on criminality therefore it is their expectation that the law enforcement agencies would apply the law to the fact that might come out from that investigation.

"This is not an occasion of privilege neither is it an occasion of immunity and therefore we would expect that this matter is thoroughly investigated and action taken on it". The deputy majority leader and MP for Tema West, Mr. Abraham Osei Aidoo also said the issue at stake is not a matter for minority or majority, adding that so far as it hinges on the integrity of parliament, it is a matter for the speaker.

"When it is brought to the knowledge of the speaker by the appropriate channels then he would also react appropriately".

Asked if the MP can lose his seat due to this act he explained that if it is determined that the matter in any way brings the integrity of parliament into disrepute it is an offence but beyond that there is also the criminal aspect of it because to his understanding, some papers were alleged to have been forgeries.

"If he is convicted of an offence based on these facts it is only then that he would lose his seat because in that case he does not qualify to be a Member of the house."

He said the constitution requires a conviction for sitting MP's, which includes offences involving dishonesty.

The Deputy Majority leader explained that if there is a proven allegation of forgery of documents or perjury, and that leads to a conviction of the honorable member, he will lose his seat.