The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has fingered former President John Dramani Mahama as the “Government Official 1” mentioned in a bribery allegation involving European aviation giant, Airbus.
Last week, Airbus entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, with the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which was investigating the company for bribing or failing to prevent corruption in transactions in five countries, including Ghana.
Under the agreement the British SFO agreed to suspend the prosecution of Airbus for a period of three years. If Airbus complies with the terms of the agreement within the period, the prosecution will be discontinued.
The mention of Ghana in the agreement has sparked a flurry of political activity with the opposition NDC issuing a statement denying that its officials in the erstwhile Mills and Mahama administrations were involved in any corruption with Airbus, which supplied military aircraft to Ghana in 2012. The deferred prosecution agreement didn’t specifically name any officials who might have been bribed or corrupted during Ghana’s negotiations with Airbus but it refers to personalities involved as Government Official 1 (a high-ranking elected public figure) and Intermediary 5 (a British national and close relative of Government Official 1), among others.
The governing New Patriotic Party believes that the person referred to as Government Official One is former President John Mahama.
At a news conference in Accra, Communication Director of the party, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, asked the former president to officially respond to the court documents.
“In the face of these facts, it is very necessary for president Mahama to come out and be heard publicly,” Mr Buabeng Asamoah said.
“He cannot continue to hide behind his party members including a former attorney general. Of course, we are all aware that he hates answering questions on corruption but the answer he must because at this moment all fingers point to him and one of his brothers.”
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com
