Nana Addo must withdraw Agyarko's appointment over bribery allegation

Former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Vitus Azeem has called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to withdraw the appointment of Boakye Agyarko as Minister of Energy over the bribery allegation.

He said Parliament must investigate the allegation by the minority on the appointments committee.

"They (Parliament) should not limit the investigations to this particular case, they should extend to the other allegations that have been made by people like Martin Amidu.

"Whichever way they will handle it, it will either be a dent on the image of the Minority or a dent on the image of the Majority. Or a general dent on the image of parliament. And, so, the leadership of parliament must handle this thing very carefully," he added.

Mahama Ayariga, Member of parliament for Bawku Central had earlier indicated on Accra-based Radio Gold that Mr Agyarko sent money to the minority side in an attempt to influence them.

The NDC Member of Parliament said they (the minority) received the money thinking it was sitting allowance for being part of the Appointments Committee only to be told it was coming from the minister designate.

He said they rejected the money and asked that the money be returned to him.

Vitus Azeem speaking to Accra FM said "The president probably needs to hold on or probably withdraw his nominee (appointee) for now until the investigation is carried out and the person has been exonerated or otherwise implicated. If he (the president) thinks the allegations are credible, I think that is the best way to go about it".

Member of Parliament for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the minority were given money by the minority chief whip Muhammad Muntaka.

According to him, Mohammad Mubarak Muntaka lied over his claims that the minority members of the house were not paid any amount of money for them to approve the nominee for Energy, Boakye Agyarko.

Ablakwa said, "Truly, we were given money…I was shocked when Muntaka denied the bribery allegation, someone called to inform me but I was shocked until later in the day when I heard the tape…I must say I wasn’t surprised, I was shocked".