A leading member of the United Party (UP), Solomon Owusu, has shared details of a private conversation he supposedly had with the late Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, who died in the horrific August 6, 2025, helicopter crash.
He said that after a TV programme on July 28, 2025, the late Murtala opened up to him about why the John Dramani Mahama government had not revoked LI 2462, which would bar mining in forest reserves.
“He (Murtala) was not happy that the LI had not been revoked, and he was so mad at all those political financiers and so on and so forth who were engineering things,” he said.
Solomon Owusu went on to narrate a story the late minister, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale Central, told him about an attempt to bribe him immediately after he assumed office.
“In fact, it was on that day that he exposed to me that when he assumed the position of a minister at the Environment Ministry, one day a gentleman he was close to, an NDC member, came to him with a sack of money — $500,000 — that someone had given to him to be given to him (Murtala),” he added.
He said that when Dr Murtala asked why the person was giving him the money, he was told the person was a businessman who does business with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
“Apparently, that person had bought most of the lands of CSIR, and this money was to make him shut up but he said no. He was content with whatever he had and that the guy must go back and give the money back to the one who sent him,” he said.
The leading member of UP said that to prevent a situation where the NDC man would keep the money and lie that he had delivered it, he called him back as he was leaving and told him to bring the businessman for a discussion.
“The next day, the guy brought the man, who is a young man. He (Murtala) told the businessman to know that he had not taken his money,” he said.
He added that Dr Murtala contracted Public Works Department (PwC) to audit all land sales at the CSIR for those which were illegally sold to be retrieved.
Watch a video of Solomon Owusu’s remarks below:
