A member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba has denied the alleged complicity of former President, John Dramani Mahama in the latest Air Bus bribery scandal.
He argued that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has no moral right to link the NDC flagbearer to the deal when it failed to accept full responsibility for the famous cash for seat saga.
Mr. Amaliba on Eyewitness News was vocal about the deductions made by the NPP pointing out that, the inferences smack of suspicion that subjects the governing party to ridicule.
“When the President was cited in the cash for seat saga and alleged to be receiving monies from people sitting close to him, they said the President then was not Nana Akufo-Addo but Ashim Morton. So if today, the NPP has done a 360 degrees and have run away from that argument and beginning to tell the people of Ghana to accept their argument that the codes we find in the ruling are codes that make reference to some particular persons and that, government official one means the former President then I am surprised.”
The NDC lawyer, therefore, asked the NPP to reconsider its thoughts of having Mr. Mahama speak on the issue.
“These are inferences and suspicions. A thousand suspicions do not become a shred of evidence. There are a number of people whose descriptions are that of Samuel in the President’s book. He is not the only one who has left Ghana for the UK. So it is therefore ridiculous for the NPP to be requesting a response from President Mahama. On what basis is he going to respond? Since when did we refer our President as Government official one? So until we have that, I think that we are engaging in premature ejaculation.”
NPP insists Mahama is GO 1
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) is accusing former President John Dramani Mahama of being “the elected government official 1” named in the Airbus bribery move.
According to the party, John Mahama cannot exonerate himself from the scandal.
At a press conference in Accra on Monday, Director of Communications of the NPP, Yaw Buaben Asamoa said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer played an active role during the purchase of some aircraft for Ghana in 2012.
He, therefore, asked Mr. Mahama to break his silence on the matter.
“The inferences are very clear on the face of the court document that the elected government official could be no other person than former President and NDC candidate, John Mahama. The court document identifies intermediary 5 as a Ghanaian-UK born citizen. Based on the profile given, they go further to say that Intermediary 5 is a close relative of Government official 1. If at this stage, I am to use John Mahama’s name as government official 1, he has written a book that he profiles a long-lost sibling. The profile is an exact copy of the profile in the court record. So there is that confluence there. It, therefore, demonstrates that government official 1 was indeed HJohn Dramni Mahama. He is the highest elected official who was in place throughout that period to be the decision-maker”, he, however, said on Eyewitness News.
The scandal
On January 31, 2020, Ghana was cited as one of five countries in which global aerospace group, Airbus SE, allegedly bribed or promised payments to senior officials in exchange for business favours between 2009 and 2015, according to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.
This led to a record £3 billion in settlement by Airbus with France, the United Kingdom and the United States to avoid corporate criminal charges.
President Nana Akufo-Addo subsequently referred the matter to the Office of the Special Prosecutor for investigation.
These investigations are expected to be conducted in collaboration with the United Kingdom authorities, according to a statement from the presidency.
Premature links
Anti-corruption campaigner, Vitus Azeem has described as premature, attempts to link former President John Dramani Mahama to the scandal.
He argued that it will be too early to accuse the former President and draw conclusions when investigations are still ongoing.
“It is too early because once you use an intermediary, there is no guarantee that even if that promise was made, the money would have gone to the person that is the decision-maker and when you talk about procurement it is not necessarily the President himself that is involved in procurement. They [NPP] would want to do that because we are in an election year but I think it is too early. Once the President has asked that it should be investigated, they should wait for it to be investigated.”