“What they wanted was to bring a closure to the matter and not to find or to pursue justice. That’s how the whole thing sounds. It’s like this issue is in the system and people want to know how it will end, so let’s put something together and navigate it to that point where there will be a closure without recourse to the facts on the ground," that is the assessment of former Presidential Staffer, Kojo Adu Asare on the Joe Ghartey Committee's Report regarding the alleged bribery case against Parliament's Appointments Committee.
Clearly dissatisfied with the committee's findings, Adu Asare believed the Committee's work was done in haste.
The Joe Ghartey Committee, an adhoc Committee which was set up by the Speaker of Parliament to probe the allegations, on Thursday, March 30, presented their report to the House.
In the report, the Committee established that the Bawku Central MP and a member of the Parliamentary Appointments Committee, Mahama Ayariga's allegations were unsubstantiated and unfounded.
He was therefore required to render an unqualified apology before Parliament yesterday, which he did seemingly unwillingly.
The Committee’s report, which was laid before Parliament yesterday [Wednesday] recommended that Mr. Ayariga be reprimanded by the Speaker of the House in accordance with Section 35 of the Parliament Act 1965 (Act 300).
The report recommended that Mr. Ayariga apologizes to the House to purge him of contempt.
Speaking to the issue on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, the former NDC MP for Adentan asserted that the Committee only wanted to bring closure to the case and not really find justice.
He explained that if the Committee was seeking justice, it would have invited other witnesses to the case to appear before it to give their accounts.
The witness he mentioned were Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Sampson Ahi and Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, all members of the august House.
To him, the fact that these people who testified to receiving bribes from the Energy Minister were not given an opportunity to voice their versions of the alleged bribery scandal punched holes in the Committee's report.
“Until you’ll give all those people an opportunity to speak or to bring their perspectives on the matter, it’s difficult to say that speaking to Ayariga alone establishes the truth or otherwise…They could have done a much better job and cleared doubts from people’s minds if they had allowed that thing to have gone on...
“But here we are, the job seems to have been concluded and we seem to be more confused with the outcome than anybody else or anything else.”
Hon. Adu Asare found their findings to be shoddily done.
“What they wanted was to bring a closure to the matter and not to find or to pursue justice. That’s how the whole thing sounds. It’s like this issue is in the system and people want to know how it will end, so let’s put something together and navigate it to that point where there will be a closure without recourse to the facts on the ground," he said.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi /Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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this is something that can best be described as r u b b i s h. the main person who is said to have received the money on behalf of the minority MPs, that is muntaka has denied the allegation. the people making the allegation (Ayariga and his cohorts) have said they have no evidence, except what they heard from their chief whip, who has flatly denied. So why should the committee invite them? they should be invited just to come and repeat the rumours. in any case is the procedure by which they received that money the right procedure that they have always been going through? they should stop wasting our time.
It is indeed reassuring. During the term of office of the previous NPP a student raped several female colleagues at KNUST and he went scot-free. The lecturers did not even rusticate the student. In fact, no student has been rusticated in over 18 years. The President's statement that deviants within NPP would not be tolerated is indeed reassuring.
Apart from PROPAGANDA and CHARACTER ASSASSINATION that Ayariga and co wanted to engage in, do you Adu-Asare believe their story? Disgraced people!
I do not know where this oaf actually gets the courage to say the gibberish he puts out there. Ayariga is a lawyer.This means if you accuse somebody of a misdemeanour as giving bribe you definitely must provide evidence. Did he not have his time with the committee?.What shred of evidence did he provide? The so-called witnesses took money and when they were told it was bribe money they returned it. Is that proof of bribery?To the extent that they even knew where the money came from even though it obviously passed through many layers.before coming to the witnesses,they were told that the money was their allowance .So folks tell me if you give money to someone for him to do a specific job for you and you don't tell him the true nature of the favour you want how would he provide that favour.What I mean is that if that money was given to facilitate the nominee's approval and the recipients were told it was their allowance ,how would they then help to facilitate the man's approval?All these are an attempt by Ayariga to denigrate Mr Agyarko,and Ayariga is the last person to be talking about corruption.
Does this guy knows what he is saying and is he Alright in his senses
The man is a lawyer,MP and a former minister.So if he knew he still have a case,Then how can he say if you say I must apologize I apologize.Is he not a lawyer?