Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga has denied claims that he [Ayariga] withdrew an allegation of attempted bribery he made against Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko.
Mr Ayariga on Friday, January 27, alleged Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko whose ministerial nomination had been withheld at the time had attempted to bribe the minority members of the appointments committee with GHC3,000 each to influence them to confirm his nomination.
"We were expecting to be given our committee sitting allowances, and we were promised by our chairman that it will come very soon, and we were called to pick up money from our Whip [Mohammed Muntaka]. We picked it up and assumed that it was our allowances and then later we heard rumours in the house and we called our leader and asked him where is the money coming from, he said it came from the Chairman [Joe Osei-Owusu] but chairman said it was coming from Boakye Agyarko so that is where we realised that we can't take money from Boakye Agyarko, so we asked him to take his money back, we are not interested,†he explained on Radio Gold.
Though Honourables Osei-Owusu and Muntaka later denied the allegations, some minority MPs including Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (North Tongu) and Alhassan Suhuyini (Tamale South) corroborated Mr Ayariga's claim leading Parliament to form a five-member committee to investigate the matter.
Appearing before the committee, chaired by Essikado-Ketan MP, Joe Ghartey, Mr Osei-Owusu claimed that the accusers had during a conclave sitting of the Appointments Committee described their accusation as mere political equalisation attempt when he insisted that the allegation be discussed.
After a meeting to find consensus in approving the nominations and of Mr Agayrko and Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, he asked for the matter to be discussed since all the people concerned were present but "all the Minority members said Mr Speaker  take your time, cool down, cool down", he narrated, adding that "it was at that point that Honourable Okudzeto-Ablakwa said because Agyarko said our president was corrupt, referring to President John Mahama, we were spreading the corruption allegation. So then the mood in the room changed. We all laughed to it".
It was upon this basis that he made a statement on the floor of parliament, while amending the committee's report to indicate that Mr Agayrko and Mr Osafo Maafo had been approved by consensus, that "indeed this meeting has shown that the allegation of corruption, the people who created it have  confessed that they created that for equalisation".
But taking his turn before the Ghartey Committee today [Monday], Mr Ayariga categorically denied ever trivialising the allegation as being portrayed by the Appointments Committee Chairman.
According to him, he never indicated at any point in time to Mr Osei-Owusu any intention to withdraw the allegation against Mr Agyarko.
"I never told Honourable Osei-Owusu that I had withdrawn the allegation of bribery against Boakye Agyarko", he explained.