President Nana Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has referred the raging Airbus bribery scandal to the Special Prosecutor, Martin A. B. K. Amidu, for investigations and possible prosecution.
It follows stunning revelation by the Southwark Crown Court in the United Kingdom in its ruling last week, January 31, 2020 on a case involving the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Airbus SE, in which the European multinational aerospace corporation has been fined a whopping amount of $3.9 billion for the payment of bribes to secure deals in five countries, including Ghana.
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has also concluded a deferred prosecution agreement with Airbus SE in the same bribery scandal involving some 20 countries, including Ghana.
A statement by the Director of Communications at the Presidency (Jubilee House), Eugene Arhin, said, “President Akufo-Addo has taken notice of the judgment and its implications, and has referred it to the Office of the Special Prosecutor to collaborate with its UK counterparts to conduct a prompt inquiry to determine the complicity or otherwise of any Ghanaian government official, past or present, involved in the said scandal and to take the necessary legal action against any such official as required by Ghanaian law.”
NPP Dares Mahama
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) also held a news conference yesterday challenging the NDC and former President John Mahama who is believed to be heavily involved in the Airbus scandal to come clean on the matter.
The NPP dared former President Mahama to defend himself against reports of misconduct while he served as Vice-President under the late President J. E. A. Mills.
The National Communications Director of the party, Yaw Buabeng Asamoa, who addressed the media, rubbished the intervention of the former Attorney-General, Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, soon after the court’s judgment made it to social media, describing her intervention as “very weak and unable to directly respond to hard facts as put out by the United Kingdom (UK) Serious Fraud Office (SFO).”
“It is, therefore, necessary that the former President, now candidate John Dramani Mahama, responds to the issues directly himself,” he said.
“The serious nature and processes involved in the accusations demand immediate action to remove any stains to the name and reputation of the Republic of Ghana,” he stressed.
The NPP, he said, was convinced that the said ‘Government Official 1’ in the report is ex-President Mahama on the face of evidence presented.
“We are convinced because of his brother Samuel (Adams) Mahama. His book, says his long lost son was Samuel (Adams) Mahama who was sent to the UK at a very early age. The narrative coincides with the court’s,” he added.
He said, “The NPP demands of the former President to tell the whole world what he knows about ‘Government Official 1’ and the processes leading to the purchase of the aircraft of Airbus SE.”
The Airbus scandal has so far been bereft of neither a robust response from the NDC nor the former President, the only one so far being the ex-Attorney-General. This too has suffered a fundamental weakness as observed by the NPP during the press conference.
With the ball now in the court of the former President as the NPP hurls hard questions at him, his response would throw more light on an issue which is no longer an allegation but a judgment by a respectable court of competent jurisdiction.
With an American judicial system arriving at a similar conclusion, it remains to be seen how the former President and his party would wriggle themselves out of the conundrum in an election year.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu & Nii Adjei Mensahfio