It was the first time a group of MPs from the Majority Caucus have organised a press conference to demand the removal of one of their own - the finance minister and minister of state at the finance ministry - because they have become incompetent at the positions they occupied in government.
Since their 'unprecedented' press conference, the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, stepped in to plead on behalf of his ministers but the MPs decided not to back down on their request so, the president asked the MPs to allow Ofori-Atta to conclude the ongoing IMF negotiations and also present the 2023 budget statement to Parliament before they revisit the issue again.
It, however, emerged on Tuesday, November 1, a wealthy businessman after the president's intervention also decided to meet the 'anti-Ofori-Atta' MPs and try to convince them to back down on their demand.
In his attempt, this influential unknown businessman is alleged to have made an attempt to present a brown envelope full of money to the over 90 MPs who organised the press conference to demand the dismissal of Ken Ofori-Atta and Charles Adu Boahen.
“I’m told on authority that some businessman came here and tried to do something. I was told that he came here and tried to mediate in his own way what he thinks the problem is...he was repelled by the people and told he was told not to involve himself. So he went away,” Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told Joy News in an interview.
Giving the details of their meeting with this influential businessman, Andy Appiah-Kubi, MP, Asante Akim North, told Joy FM in an interview monitored by GhanaWeb that:
"I am part of the group that organised the press conference in respect of the claim that the Finance Minister should be relieved of his position and we have been meeting on this subject matter, there was an occasion that a man approached us and wanted to mediate on behalf of the finance minister.
"We assured him that we did not have anything against the Finance Minister per se except that the public confidence in him has waned, that we have been approached by our constituents and, therefore, we thought that it was time for him to go so we will rebuild public confidence in the ministry and the government.
"The man came and talked to us about it and wanted us to turn around and [re]consider the decision…we listened to him, and he said that while he has come here to talk to us; we have given him the opportunity to address us and therefore he wants to leave something behind for us. Indeed he got somebody to bring it and we said sorry, we cannot take anything. It is not for the reason of money that we are taking this decision, we are motivated by our conscience and therefore, it is not about materialism and that it is where it ended. We returned the money to him and he took it away."
When asked if it was an attempt to bribe the MPs, Appiah-Kubi responded “we don’t consider it as a bribe because there was nothing that we were doing to his advantage as a person so, that will not constitute a bribe. It was something that he was doing to try and get us to accommodate probably; that cannot qualify as a bribe."
"Bribe is when you have taken something to do the things that you will otherwise not do. But he has no personal interest in the matter so why will he pay a bribe? Maybe he was trying to offer something by way of his association with us so, I won’t call it a bribe, in any case, it was not given and nobody was a beneficiary of his gift or offer," he added.
The leader of the 'anti-Ofori-Atta' MPs giving clarity on who this said businessman met indicated categorically that the wealthy businessman did not meet the entire Majority caucus but the group that came out on the day to organise the press conference to demand the removal of Ken Ofori-Atta and Charles Adu Boahen.
This businessman further noted to the aggrieved MPs that “it is not in the interest of the business community to see this confusion in governance and therefore for the sake of the business community, and their businesses, let us ensure that there is peace and tranquility in the political space. That is why he has come to talk to us.
“There was no need to investigate the group he represented neither was a need for us to investigate his personal commitment or interest in this matter; but I saw him as a statesman and somebody who has business interest in Ghana, who is interested in the tranquility that existed within the leadership of the country."
