John Dramani Mahama
The name Samuel Adam Mahama alleged to be a close relative of former President John Mahama is coming up strongly as Intermediary 5 in the British investigations into the raging Airbus SE scandal.
Until now, the subject remained a conundrum and, therefore, left to conjectures, with no strong premises to support conclusions.
Emerging Details
However, details of one of the companies related to the Airbus transaction, Deedum Limited, show that it had three directors, namely Nana Kwaku Donkor, company secretary; Philip Sean Middlemiss, director, and Samuel Adam Mahama, director.
At the time of registering the company in Accra, the said Samuel Adam Mahama gave his address as 19 Avenue Road, Penge, London.
Deedum Limited was incorporated on 8th May 2012, and it was dissolved on 26th June 2019, with its registered address being Bentleys Chartered Accountants, Level 8 Alg Building 41 Shortland Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
Further details of Samuel Adam Mahama show his occupation as a facilitator and events officer.
Change of Name
Intermediary 5, Samuel Adam Mahama by 14/2/19 appeared to have turned to Samuel Adam Foster per British records with a company called Furneaux Limited.
The details alteration was done at UK’s Companies House, the equivalent of local Registrar General’s Department.
The title of the document is Change of Particulars for Director with bar code X7Z9PQLM.
The address given per the records was 4 Wimpole Street, London, Greater London UK, W1G 9S8.
On the document the additions appeared – The usual address of this person has not changed.
The foregone contrasts with the previous details of Adam Samuel Mahama of 19, Avenue Road Penge, London.
Company Positions
Samuel Adam Foster, Director of Deedum Limited, was appointed director of the company on 10th February 2010.
Instructively, Deedum Limited was dissolved on 26th June 2019.
Deedum Limited registered in the UK and of which Samuel Adam Mahama is director bore similar features with the one incorporated in Ghana.
Although not in good standing, this does not stop it from doing business, DAILY GUIDE has learnt.
Samuel Adam Foster shares the same address as Samuel Adam Mahama – 19 Avenue Road Penge, London, the last being the details he gave the Registrar General’s Department when he was registering as director of Deedum Limited in Ghana- 19 Avenue Road Penge, London.
One of the directors, Philip Sean Middlemiss, has turned out to be a television and radio personality, who plays a role in a popular series in the UK.
Airbus Saga
The Airbus saga continues to rage in local politics because of the political figures thought to have played ball with the bribe-giving executives of the giant European aircraft manufacturing company.
A British court recently fined Airbus an amount of 3 million pounds using bribe to induce the purchased aircraft from them.
Ghana was one of the countries cited in the matter; the reference to a certain Government Official 1 and his brother Intermediary 5 without mentioning their names, compelling observers to probe who the said Government Official 1 and Intermediary 5 could be.
NPP Counter Attack
Without wasting much time, the members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) went overdrive and claimed that former President Mahama is the person that the UK and US investigations revealed took the 5 million bribes in respect of the sale of aircraft to Ghana by Airbus SE.
They even dared him to come out and clear the air but unusual of him, the former President has gone silent ever since, not even his characteristic social media posts.
Striking Similarities
In the UK Crown Court documents, the SFO names the elected NDC guru as ‘Government Official 1’ and that powerful official is the same person being referred to as ‘Individual 1’ in the US court documents.
In the same vein ‘Intermediary 5’ in the UK court documents who has been described as the brother of the powerful elected official in Ghana is the same person being referred to as ‘Consultant 4’ by the US authorities.
Presidential Power
The fact that only the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the President can authorize such a purchase makes the subject even more worrying.
Now that the said Intermediary 5 has been unmasked the mask covering the visage of Government Official 1 is automatically unveiled.
Special Prosecutor
Following the order by the President to the Special Prosecutor to wade into the issue, Martin Amidu has swung into action.
A press statement from the Special Prosecutor released yesterday acknowledged the President’s order on “the allegations of bribery of some Ghanaian Officials in the military aircraft deal disclosed in two deferred prosecution agreements and judgments on 31st January 2020 in the United Kingdom and the United States of America respectively, implicating Airbus SE, certain individuals and Ghana Government public officials for consideration and possible action.”
Reasonable Suspicion
Continuing, the Special Prosecutor observes in the release that “the said referral and the deferred prosecution agreements and judgments accompanying them raise reasonable suspicion of the commission of corruption and corruption-related offences of bribery of public officers and the use of public office by public officers for private profit, which are offences falling within the mandate of this Office under the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959). A preliminary investigation was accordingly opened on 4th February 2020 by this Office into the allegations contained in the judgments referred to this Office aforesaid.”
Assistance Call
The Special Prosecutor announced that relevant domestic public institutions with information helpful to the investigations have been asked to support the Special Prosecutor’s Office with relevant document and information under Act 959.
Foreign Contacts
Contacts with foreign authorities, he added, had been made for documents and information and documents to assist in the ongoing investigations.
He appealed to the public not to speculate or politicize the disclosures made in the deferred prosecution agreements and judgments so as to, as he put it, “allow this Office to treat the suspected crimes as suspect crimes simpliciter and nothing more, pending the conclusion of the investigation.”
By A.R. Gomda