GHc5,000 Bribe Offer to Nail Ellembelle MP Backfires

Mr. Opaa Tarpeh, a 30 year old man, says he has turned down a GHC5,000 bribe offer to corroborate a story that his wife had an adulterous affair with Mr. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Member of Parliament(MP) for Ellembelle,

Mr. Tarpeh said, though he is a New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporter and his wife, Ms Patricia Cudjoe, is an ardent supporter of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), they have been living together peacefully and will never endorse such a blatant lie to tarnish the image and hard-won reputation of Mr. Buah.

The 30-year old NPP activist, who said he wanted to clear the air, was speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Aiyinasi, his hometown, after the issue had been published in The Daily Guide, an Accra daily.

According to him, he had a telephone call with an unknown number from Accra and the person claimed he works at the office of the former MP for Ellembelle, Mr. Freddie Blay.

Mr. Tarpeh said the caller persuaded him to lie that his wife and Mr. Buah had had sexual relations which is being rumoured, and that after taking the amount, more money will be added.

He said he was shocked how someone who works at Mr. Freddie Blay's office in Accra got his number to call him with an unknown number.

NPP supporters and activists in the Ellembelle constituency allegedly started a rumour mongering that the sitting MP who doubles as the deputy Minister of Energy, had had an affair with a married woman.

The rumour which was initially taken with a pinch of salt, gained momentum when a nurse at the Asasetre Health Centre, Abeka Dauda, a former President of the Tertiary Education Students Confederacy Network (TESCON) of the NPP at the Assisted Nursing Training School at Esiama, was picked by the Police for making unsubstantiated allegations about the MP.

"How can I just concoct such a lie just for monetary gains? If I do that God will punish me and I will suffer", Mr. Tarpeh said.

According to him, though he is an NPP supporter, he sees Mr. Buah as "a decent politician, a Christian and someone committed to the development of the Ellembelle constituency."

He told the Ghana News Agency that his family is not disturbed by the rumour and it has resolved not to be disintegrated in such trying moments.

On the way forward, Mr. Tarpeh told the Ghana News Agency that they will soon hold a press conference and tell their story to the world.