Judiciary Must Still Investigate Muntaka’s Bribery Allegations Despite His Apology

US-based Ghanaian Professor, Kwaku Asare, has said that the apology rendered by Asawase Member of Parliament for his bribery allegation against a justice of the Supreme Court, should not obstruct the judicial inquiry into the matter.

He said the allegation, if true, is serious enough to warrant some consequences. And equally, if it is false and had no basis, is serious enough to warrant some consequences.

Muntaka has apologised for the bribery accusation he made against a justice of the Supreme Court after the elections of a speaker for the 8th Parliament.

Portions of his apology read “Based upon good counsel, I have also decided to let sleeping dogs lie and will consequently refrain from any further public commentary on the matter which, as I have indicated was originally reported to me by a female colleague Parliamentarian.”

Commenting on this in a Facebook post, Professor Asare said “I read somewhere that Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak, the honorable MP for Asawasi has retracted his allegation against members of the Supreme Court.

“When one reads the purported apology carefully, as one should, one easily sees that he is not really withdrawing the allegation but apologizing for making a general, rather than a specific, allegation. That is, he is apologizing for saying Supreme Court justices, rather than mentioning the name of the Justice involved, but “letting sleeping dogs lie” on the allegation itself against the Justice.

This, to me, is hardly adequate. Either the allegation in its entirety is false and he must withdraw same in its entirety, render an unqualified and unconditional apology and fall on his sword by being made to answer for his contumacious remarks.  Or there is a basis for the allegation and a full throttle investigation is still warranted to unravel the puzzle.

However, I’m not oblivious of our “fa ma nyame” culture and I’m certain that we will close the chapter on this one and move on, as if nothing has happened.

In fact, I won’t be surprised if the broad based consultation he says he made reached a settlement that we the masses be given a tranquilizer in the form of this half-baked apology.

“In the process, those who claimed his allegation was baseless will claim victory. Those who claim it had merit will equally claim victory. The only victims are truth and what actually happened. It is my hope that this apology does not preempt the judicial inquiry into the matter. The allegation, if true, is serious enough to warrant some consequences. And equally, if it is false and had no basis, is serious enough to warrant some consequences. Surely, we must let sleeping dogs lie. But that is not to say that we must put barking dogs to sleep.”

Source: 3News