Ghana MPs push for probe into bribery claims

Mahama Ayariga

Accra – Lawmakers in Ghana on Monday called for an investigation into claims that a minister in new President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government bribed the committee vetting his candidacy.

Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko has been accused of attempting to bribe some opposition party members of the committee with $700 each to approve his nomination.

The allegations were made by an MP from the National Democratic Congress party who sits on the committee but one of his NDC colleagues rejected the claim.

Three other lawmakers on the committee on Monday wrote to parliament asking for an internal enquiry “into the veracity of the claims… of attempted bribery”.

The allegations emerged last Friday and prompted a swift denial from parliament, which called them “frivolous and vexatious and should be discarded”.

Akufo-Addo, who took office earlier this month after beating the then-president John Dramani Mahama in elections last December, has promised to fight corruption.

During his campaign he promised to appoint an independent prosecutor to deal specifically with claims of graft to avoid the perception of investigations being used as a political witch-hunt.

Source: News24