NPP legal brains: Litigate and jail Ayariga

In the past few days, the Ghanaian media including Ghanaweb has been filled with stories about alleged doling out of money by Hon. Boakye Agyarko to the parliamentary vetting committee.

At the center of this matter is MP of Bawku, Mahama Ayariga, who claims that the alleged money was meant to influence him and his colleagues to grant favor in judgment for Hon. Agyarko. Ayariga’s own account and sequence of events posted at Ghanaweb yesterday (January 30th, 2017), unequivocally implicates him and his NDC colleagues in a premeditated crime for which my friends at NPP with legal acumen must litigate and have Ayariga and accomplices jailed.

The request for the money was initiated by Ayariga and his NDC colleagues who were crying foul over alleged inadequate financial compensation from the state for their efforts in the vetting process. Ayariga and his colleagues voluntarily solicited the money and any well meaning Ghanaian will contribute to help definitely on humanitarian grounds. There are extreme grave legal implications here and definite infraction of the law.

I am writing from the United States, the matured democracy that we all try to emulate. In every sound democracy, political leaders are barred by law from soliciting gifts, favors and money from citizens, especially if there would be a quid pro quo. In the middle of a parliamentary vetting procedure, would it not be a violation of the law for Ayariga and colleagues to cry out “we have no money, so bring us some money”? I think it is unlawful.

There are also sound reasons why in clean democracies, citizenry or the law require persons seeking high political offices to establish their financial adequacy through processes such as asset declaration which President Akufo Addo has recently undergone voluntarily and is urging others to do. The aim here is to preclude the vulnerability of political leaders from influence peddling by unscrupulous citizens.

If Ayariga and his NDC colleagues can go around crying “we have no money, so bring us some money”, it does show weakness, financial inadequacy, lack of integrity, greed and corrupt personality for which Ayariga and colleagues should be removed from parliament.

To the extent that Ayariga and his NDC colleagues initiated the request for the money an ulterior motive in the form of a premeditated crime is quite clear. They definitely designed the act to use the alleged trail of the money as a factor to tarnish the character not only of Hon. Agyarko, but the image of NPP at large.

NPP members constitute a majority on the vetting committee. Thus any NPP candidate under vetting is assured of nothing less than successful clearance. This will debunk any notion that Hon. Agyarko will feel unsure of the outcome of his vetting and go to the extent of giving out money to secure a successful outcome. This is insane and ridiculous.

In every decent democracy what Ayariga and his NDC accomplices did will be illegal and unacceptable. To the extent that Ayariga was at the helm of this despicable crime, I urge the legal brains in NPP to litigate the matter and jail Ayariga to serve as a deterrent to future perpetrators.