Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has said he will be surprised if it turns out to be true, that the Member of Parliament for Asante Akim North Andy Kwame Appiah-Kubi was not cooperative in the investigations of the bribery allegations that he made as indicated by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
Mr Kpebu described Appiah-Kubi as an astute lawyer who knows what he talks about.
Kpebu says he wants to hear from Appiah-Kubi before he can draw conclusions based on the OSP’s report.
Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 on Wednesday, January 3, he said “At this stage, this story is still very fluid, you know how very sensitive this matter is, it keeps changing by the hour, so at this stage, I am not able to conclude.
“Mr Appiah-Kubi is an astute lawyer and we are yet to hear from him so it will be hard for me to conclude based on the OPS reports.
“I will be very surprised that after making all these allegations it turns out that he is not cooperative. That is why I want to hold my horses till Mr Appiah-Kubi is interviewed then we can juxtapose his responses with those of the OSP and then come to a conclusion.
“I am not saying Appiah-Kubi is a saint, but it will cast a slur on his reputation if he doesn’t respond.”
The Special Prosecutor (SP) has directed the closure of investigations into allegations that was made by Appiah-Kubi. The lawmaker had alleged that 80 Members of Parliament of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) received bribe from an unnamed businessman to back down on their demand for the resignation of Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta.
According to Mr Kissi Agyebeng, proceeding with investigations will not yield the desired results.
“…the Special Prosecutor directs the closure of the investigation
in respect of allegations that a well-known and wealthy businessman attempted
to bribe a section of the majority caucus of Parliament. The Special Prosecutor
determines that the institution of criminal proceedings, at this time, against the
OSP’s identified suspect would serve no useful purpose,” a report dated December 28 sighted by 3News.com indicated.
The SP stated that, “The investigation may be re-opened should the circumstances and further facts so dictate.”
“This report is founded on regulation 31(1)(g) of the Office of the Special
Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations, 2018 (L.I. 2374), which mandates the OSP
to publish detected acts of corruption through the receipt, collection, or collation
of reports, documents, materials, complaints, allegations, information and
intelligence,” he wrote.
It would be recalled that the MP for Asante Akim North, Andy Appiah-Kubi alleged that a wealthy businessman attempted to bribe he and 79 of his colleague NPP MPs for them to stop their quest to have Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta removed from office.