The special prosecutor Martin Alamisi Amidu has finally opened up and named former President John Dramani Mahama as the one tagged government official 1 in the Airbus scandal.
Readers would remember that when the news first broke, people started pointing accusing fingers at the former President based of the fact that he was the leader of the country as of the time the deal was sealed.
Not only that, but the report suggested that one of the people who benefited had has a brother in government which heightened allegations that the officer involved is no other than Mahama.
Even though everyone was talking about him been government official one, Mahama granted an interview with Daily guide where he stated that he did not make any benefit whatsoever from the deal which reportedly was transacted during his time as president.
Well, it’s been months since the official reports came and finally, the office of the special prosecutor has confirmed the government official 1 as stated in the report is John Dramani Mahama.
According to Martin Amidu, the main reason why the former president is not being investigated is because of the December polls.
“The only reason the former President [Mahama] has not been invited for interrogation (in spite of all threats from some of his followers and lawyers) is the fact that he got himself insurance as the Presidential candidate of the other largest political party in Ghana”, he said.
In February this year, global airplane manufacturing giant, Airbus SE, was fined a record three billion pounds in penalties by the UK Crown Court of Southwark, London, after admitting it had paid huge bribes on an “endemic” basis to land contracts in 20 countries, including Ghana and in the United States.
The damages against Airbus SE, with Case No.: 1:20-cr-00021 (TFH), was being assessed after the historic judgement at the District Court of Columbia.
UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), in documents sent to court, quoted at least five million Euros as payment of kickbacks to a top Ghanaian official through an intermediary who is a close relative of “a high-ranking elected Ghanaian government official” during the Mahama administration.
Martin Amidu stated that there is enough “reasonable suspicion” of corruption and bribery in the deferred prosecution agreement between Airbus and the British Serious Fraud Office in which Ghana was featured.
