The Deputy Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Asokwa, Patricia Appiagyei, has denied authoring a memorandum in which she was purported to have admitted receiving and returning GH¢70,000 allegedly connected to Parliament’s vetting of ministerial and Supreme Court nominees.
Madam Appiagyei has described the document, which has been circulating in the media, as fake and insisted that she neither wrote, authorised nor circulated it.
The purported memorandum, reportedly addressed to the Minority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, claimed that the Asokwa MP had returned GH¢70,000 allegedly allocated to her as an advance from the Majority Chief Whip.
The document further suggested that the money was connected to the vetting of two ministerial nominees and three nominees to the Supreme Court, with Madam Appiagyei purportedly questioning the source and purpose of the funds.
However, responding to the controversy in a statement issued , the Deputy Minority Leader categorically denied ever receiving the GH¢70,000 or any other money in connection with her duties on Parliament’s Appointments Committee.
“I did not write, authorise, or circulate this document. It is fake and should be disregarded by all,” she stated.
Madam Appiagyei said she had “at all times” discharged her responsibilities on the Appointments Committee with integrity.
She stressed that since she had not received the alleged GH¢70,000, there was no occasion for her to return any such money, as suggested in the document.
“I state expressly and without qualification that I did not receive any payment of GH¢70,000, or any other sum, from any person in connection with the vetting of ministerial or Supreme Court nominees, or in connection with my duties as a member of the Appointments Committee,” she said.
According to her, she was attending the funeral of a friend when her attention was first drawn to the document.
She said that after discovering that the purported memorandum had emanated from her office, she initially believed that marking it as “FAKE” would be sufficient to deal with the matter, until it gained widespread attention in the media.
Madam Appiagyei described the fabrication and circulation of the document as a serious matter and disclosed that she was seeking legal advice on possible action against those responsible.
She said she reserved the right to pursue legal remedies against any person found to have fabricated or knowingly circulated the document.
The Deputy Minority Leader also alleged that faceless individuals were attempting to create division within the Minority Caucus of the New Patriotic Party.
“It is clear to me that some faceless individuals are up to some mischief to sow seeds of discord in our Caucus but this will fail,” she stated.
She assured supporters of the New Patriotic Party and the general public that the Minority Caucus remained united behind the party’s flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, ahead of the 2028 general election.
The development comes after the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) announced that it had commenced preliminary investigations into the authenticity of the purported memorandum, as well as the alleged source and purpose of the GH¢70,000 mentioned in the document.
The OSP subsequently invited Madam Appiagyei to assist in the preliminary investigation.
With the Asokwa MP now publicly disowning the memorandum and denying that she received any money in connection with the vetting process, the authenticity and origin of the document are likely to become central to the ongoing preliminary investigation.
This version makes the denial the central news peg, while properly linking it to the earlier OSP investigation without presenting the alleged payment or attempted bribery as an established fact.
