CORRUPTION:"Bribe Money" was a reciprocal gesture - Boniface

Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique, a former Works and Housing Minister A former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing in the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique has denied receiving bribe from a UK construction firm, Mabey and Johnson while he was a student in the United Kingdom. Although he accepts taking the said amount of £500 from the firm, Alhaji Boniface told Citi News in an interview on Friday, September 25, that the money was a gesture from the UK construction firm to support his education. Mabey and Johnson on Friday pleaded guilty to making some payments to the tune of some £470,000 in bribes to some Ghanaian politicians in the 1980s and the 1990s. The Health Minister, Dr. Sipa Yankey and a Former Finance Minister, Kwame Peprah are among a tall list of public officials implicated alongside Alhaji Saddique Boniface for receiving bribes from Mabey and Johnson. Alhaji Abubakar Saddique explained to Citi News that the money was a reciprocal gesture after establishing a long term relationship with them while working at the Ministry of Finance as a schedule officer. “I was a schedule officer working with the Ministry of Finance and I was on schorlaship to London and having known them for some time I believe that it was some kind of a reciprocal gesture for them to support me while I was in school.” He said. The former Works and Housing Minister expressed shock at the allegations of bribery leveled against him saying “it’s so ridiculous…I’m surprised that today am being accused of taking £500 in London to influence decisions in Ghana when I was a student”. Meanwhile, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mrs. Betty Mould Iddrisu, says her outfit, has already taken steps to gather all necessary information about the UK firm, Mabey and Johnson to help in its investigations on the matter. Source: Citi FM