{"id":630970,"date":"2019-06-04T14:23:26","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T14:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"<br><div>\n<figure class=\"fff post-thumbnail\" itemprop=\"associatedMedia\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><img class=\"post_layout_5_img\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghana-mma.com\/2019\/06\/Mahama-Ayariga-2.jpg\" alt=\"Ayariga heads to court after ini"},"modified":"2019-06-04T14:23:26","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T14:23:26","slug":"ayariga-heads-to-court-after-initial-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/06\/04\/ayariga-heads-to-court-after-initial-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Ayariga heads to court after initial protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"fff post-thumbnail\" itemprop=\"associatedMedia\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"post_layout_5_img\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/06\/Mahama-Ayariga-2.jpg\" alt=\"Ayariga heads to court after initial protests\"\/><span class=\"featured-image-caption\"><br \/>\nMP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga <\/span><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The Member of Parliament of Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has made his way to the High Court\u00a0for the criminal case against him after initial complaints.<\/p>\n<p>The Bawku MP was expected in court by 1 pm this afternoon after an order to represent himself amid charges of\u00a0tax evasion and fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu led a team of MPs to the court to support Mr. Ayariga.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-520200\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/06\/WhatsApp-Image-2019-06-04-at-12.44.35-PM-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1032\" height=\"774\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>In his earlier protests, the Bawku Central MP made an application to the Speaker to rule on the issue following his summons to court to face the charges against him by the Special Prosecutor in court.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that his immunity as a legislator needed to be respected.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ayariga has also challenged the\u00a0Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, who is pursuing him in court over the charges of\u00a0tax evasion and fraud.<\/p>\n<p>He insists that the Special Prosecutor must follow due process as he probes the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>He is accused of fraudulently evading customs duties and taxes by paying GHc6,062.86 instead of the approved duties and taxes of GHc36,597.15 to clear three Toyota V8 Land Cruisers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He is also accused of allegedly abusing his office as a public officer for his private benefit by selling the three Toyota V8 Land Cruisers meant to be used for your official duties as a Member of Parliament to Kendrick Akwasi Marfo of ATLAS-Rent-A-Car at a price of GHc40,000 each.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Amidu sued Mr Ayariga and subsequently wrote to the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye to \u201crelease\u201d the Bawku Central legislator to appear in court on Tuesday to answer to the criminal charges against him.<\/p>\n<p>But the MP who just returned from Abuja on Parliamentary duties described the invitation as \u201cinappropriate\u201d and will not honour it.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"ctx-article-root\"\/>  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga The Member of Parliament of Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has made his way to the High Court\u00a0for the criminal case against him after initial complaints. The Bawku MP was expected in court by 1 pm this afternoon after an order to represent himself amid charges of\u00a0tax evasion and fraud. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":630971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ayariga heads to court after initial protests - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/06\/04\/ayariga-heads-to-court-after-initial-protests\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Ayariga heads to court after initial protests - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga The Member of Parliament of Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has made his way to the High Court\u00a0for the criminal case against him after initial complaints. The Bawku MP was expected in court by 1 pm this afternoon after an order to represent himself amid charges of\u00a0tax evasion and fraud. 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The Bawku MP was expected in court by 1 pm this afternoon after an order to represent himself amid charges of\u00a0tax evasion and fraud. 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