{"id":294521,"date":"2017-02-15T13:57:21","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T13:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=294521"},"modified":"2017-02-15T13:57:21","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T13:57:21","slug":"committee-hearing-osei-owusu-vehemently-denies-bribery-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/02\/committee-hearing-osei-owusu-vehemently-denies-bribery-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"Committee hearing: Osei-Owusu vehemently denies bribery allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The First Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Appointment\u2019s committee, Joe Osei-Owusu, reiterated his innocence of the claims of his role in the bribery scandal that rocked the Committee when he appeared before the five-member committee investigating the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Osei-Owusu was the first witness before the committee chaired by the Railways Minister, Joe Ghartey and he was alleged to have attempted to bribe each of the Minority members on the Appointments Committee with GHc 3,000 said to have come from the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko.<\/p>\n<p>[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;ns5hNECTQATj9Iqqvb2lwWp7sDU65VRH&#8221;]The allegations were made by the MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga who said \u00a0Mr. Agyarko <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/01\/27\/ayariga-accuses-agyarko-of-bribing-minority-members-to-get-approval\/\">attempted to bribe<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0the Minority members of the Appointments Committee to approve his nomination after a tense vetting session.<\/p>\n<p>The allegation was subsequently supported by two other Minority MPs; Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Alhassan Suhuyini.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Osei Owusu narrated that he was initially livid at the allegations during a meeting of the committee members but calmed down after he was given the impression by Mr. Ablakwa that the allegations were a mere political retaliation to Mr, Agyarko\u2019s insinuation, during his vetting, that President John Mahama was corrupt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause Agyarko said our President was corrupt, referring to President John Mahama, we were spreading the corruption allegations. So then the mood in the room changed and we all laughed at it,\u201d he recounted.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_289474\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-289474\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-289474 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Ministerial-vetting-25.jpeg\" alt=\"ministerial-vetting-25 Ablakwa \" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-289474\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI was insistent that matter be investigated before we leave the room but when he [Ablakwa] said that they created that to spread the corruption I dropped my insistence,\u201d Mr. Osei-Owusu added, as evidenced by <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/01\/28\/bribery-allegations-against-agyarko-fabricated-osei-owusu\/\">his submission<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on the floor of Parliament in the immediate aftermath of the allegations that evening.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that after this, he expected the allegations to die down but\u00a0 he was on his way to Kofriudua for the induction course for new MPs when\u00a0 he \u201creceived reports that Mahama Ayariga had taken to social media saying that the allegation he made was true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Mr. Osei Owusu was resolute in his innocence saying, \u201cthe allegation that I have taken money from honourable Agyarko whether for myself or for any member of my committee is false. Neither have\u00a0I discussed anything to do with money with honourable Ayariga or any member for that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The First Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Appointment\u2019s committee, Joe Osei-Owusu, reiterated his innocence of the claims of his role in the bribery scandal that rocked the Committee when he appeared before the five-member committee investigating the matter. Mr. Osei-Owusu was the first witness before the committee chaired by the Railways Minister, Joe Ghartey [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":294522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,11],"tags":[3364,3582,3,3553],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Committee hearing: Osei-Owusu vehemently denies bribery allegations - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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