General Secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has questioned the rationale behind the Chief of Staff (CoS), Madam Akosua Frema Osei-Opare paying an amount of GHS120,000 to the embattled Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Sarah Adwoa Safo as alleged by Kennedy Agyapong, MP for Assin Central.
The NDC believes Ghanaians need to know the source of the money and why such an amount was given to the beleaguered Minister, and if the money was a salary or bribe.
Hon Kennedy Agyapong, on Tuesday, revealed that Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare gave him an amount of GH¢120,000 to be deposited into the Dome-Kwabenya MP’s bank account for her to attend to Parliament duties to work for the government.
What seemed to have got the MP so worked up is the fact that even after paying the amount, Adwoa Safo has still not appeared in Parliament to support the party passing the e-levy.
“The Chief of Staff called me and I went, I swear [on] my mother’s grave, Chief of Staff gave me ¢120,000 and deposited into Adwoa Safo’s Fidelity Bank account.
“I took the money there into the Fidelity Account, ask her personal assistant if what I am saying is not the truth,” a furious Kennedy Agyapong said on Asaase Radio.
Commenting on the issue in an interview on Accra-Based radio station, Mr Asiedu Nketia quizzed how the Chief of Staff could swagger around with such a whopping amount of money and spend on such frivolous ventures. He also wondered if the money was in dollars or euros or other form of currency.
“GHc120,000 is a lot of money, even if it is in the old currency, that is quite a huge amount of money. So does the Chief of Staff carry such a huge amount of money on her every day? These are legitimate questions we need answers to. We also need to know whether the Chief of Staff owed the MP money and she was paying back.
“More so, how did she receive the money, was it a bank transfer? If it was a bank transfer, we should know how it was done because the banks are required by law to enquire when you are making huge deposits to find out the source of the money unless it is money laundering,” he added.
General Mosquito, as the NDC General Secretary is affectionately called, described as worrying the decision to pay such huge amount of money to an elected MP before she agrees to come to the House to perform her duties.
“What kind of corruption is this? This is why I say we should probe this because we want to know whether it was a loan or it was a bribe. If the government that is preaching a cashless system pays money in cash then it’s worrying.
“there are laws in this country and this is the time these laws needs to be triggered to find out if indeed what Hon. kennedy Agyapong is true. and if he is lying too, i believe the Inspector General of Police should invite him because he wouldn’t be different from the likes of Boamah Bennieh and bobie Ansah,” he added.
