Member
of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli/Kaleo, Alban Sumana Bagbin says he is
ready to face any Committee set up by Parliament to investigate his
allegations that his colleagues in the House take bribes.
Hon. Bagbin stated emphatically that he would not deny his claims.
According to him, his character is not to lie and maintained that some MPs demand a token before they discharge their duties.
He stressed he will not pretend that Parliamentarians in the country don't collect bribes when they indeed do.
Hon.
Bagbin faced the wrath of his colleagues after disclosing at a civil
society forum in Koforidua that MPs accept bribes in the discharge of
their duties.
The Members of Parliament, both majority and
minority, have so far discounted the allegations leveled against them
with some saying they are only lobbied in their service delivery.
They therefore called for a Committee of inquiry to be established to interrogate Mr. Bagbin’s claims.
But
speaking in an interview with Radio Gold, Hon. Bagbin insisted that his
claims are true adding that he will not try to play the ostrich.
Obviously, "it is not my nature to lie," he said.
“...That’s not
part of my nature and so I will not only appear, I’ll also come with
what I believe is the evidence. I am not just going to appear and try
and run away from it."
“I never said all members of parliament
and unless they want to say that I should have been denying the obvious
or speaking untruths and I am not that kind of person. There’s no way
I’m going to be lying through my teeth to the civil society participants
as to what is happening in parliament, I won’t do that. But if the
position is that I should appear before privileges committee or I should
appear before leadership of parliament, I will do so when I return to
Ghana...No, no, no when I appear before the leadership or the privileges
committee I will definitely be providing the evidence for the
leadership or the committee to look at.”
To him, his colleagues have misconstrued his claims.
"They
got everything wrong. The questioner from the civil society, together
with his colleagues, were producing evidence of how some members of
parliament compelled them to offer them bribes before they did work for
them in parliament. And so my reaction was to concede that some members,
I’ve never stated all members of parliament...
"I said yes,
some members of parliament, from the evidence that they produced and
from what we all know, would be prone to taking bribes before doing work
but it was because, and then I gave explanations of the conditions
under which we work in parliament, which could pressurize some members
to fall prey into accepting bribes. And so I don’t understand why they
are saying that I said all members of parliament". |
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