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'I swear by Allah, I didn't give money to Ayariga' - Muntaka

The minority chief whip has denied receiving money from the chairman of the appointments committee Joe Osei-Owusu.

The minority chief whip in parliament, Mubarak Muntaka, has rebuffed claims that he received money from the chairman of the appointments committee, Joe Osei-Owusu, and distributed same to minority members of the committee to influence them to approve the nomination of Boakye Agyarko, the energy minister-designate.

A member of the Minority in Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, on Friday accused Mr. Agyarko, then a Minister nominee, of attempting to bribe the ten minority members on parliament’s Appointments Committee with GHc3000 each, in a bid to lure them to approve him as the Energy Minister.

The allegation came hours after the Minority had refused to support the approval of Mr Agyarko and Yaw Osafo Maafo; Senior Minister nominee, after raising concerns over some statements the two made before the committee during vetting.

And Muntaka, a member of the minority in parliament and a Member of Parliament for Asawase in the Ashanti region, has strongly denied receiving money  Osei-Owusu and that he was at a loss as to why Ayariga would make up such an accusation.

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Muntaka told Joy FM:

" I am saying this with a lot of difficulty.....I am a Muslim and Ayariga is a Muslim, I am swearing by the Allah that has created he and I, I never gave Ayariga anything and I said it was coming from Joe Osei Owusu and [Osei Owusu] has never discussed any money issue with me and ...I have never given any Ayariga any money, saying that it is coming from the Chairman.

He said as a fellow Muslim, he expected Ayariga to do better.

Osei-Owusu, on the same network, also denied the charges, vowing to initiate court action to clear his name.

For his part, Boakye Agarko also denied the charges on Accra-based Citi FM, stressing that he had not given "a single soul a penny".

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"I say so that it is not true without the fear of contradiction. It is a fabrication because the allegation that I said Mahama was corrupt, so they also have to smear me to say that I am corrupt and I have not right to accuse Mahama of being corrupt.

“I am not afraid of man, but if that is how we are going to live our national lives, so be it. But I don’t believe it is the right way,” he said.

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