Airbus scandal probe: I’ll grill Mahama after election -says Martin Amidu

The Special Prosecutor (SP), Martin Alamisi Barnes Kaiser Amidu, has explained the reason former President Mahama, under whose tenure as Vice President the alleged Airbus bribery scandal took place, has not been invited for interrogation.
According to Mr Amidu, his office has been investigating the matter since it was referred to it by the President, and has every reason to conclude that the unidentified Government Official 1, as the United Kingdom’s court described, is John Dramani Mahama.
However, the latter has not been invited for questioning because he was in the contest for the presidency of the Republic of Ghana, the SP said in a report to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The report, which also touched on the risk assessment of the controversial Agyapa Royalties deal, states: “This Office also has warrants of arrest issued by the Courts of Ghana, and an Interpol Red Alert Notice outstanding for execution in the case of the Republic v Samuel Adam Mahama and Others (known as the Airbus SE — Ghana Bribery Scandal involving the then Government of Ghana), not to talk of documentary evidence of suspected forgeries, and deceit of a public officer by the three full-blood brothers in the corruption transaction to obtain a Ghanaian passport for Samuel Adam Mahama.
“This Office has established the identity of elected Government official 1 to be former President John Dramani Mahama, whose brother of the full blood is Samuel Adam Foster, also known as Samuel Adam Mahama. The only reason the former President 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 an insurance as the presidential candidate of the other largest political party in Ghana, and prudence dictated that the interrogation be held in abeyance during this election season.
“The former President has also not offered to make any voluntary statement to this Office, despite the publication of an alleged interview containing admissions purportedly made by the former President to a Daily Graphic reporter without the full voice recording, which, in the meantime, remains just hearsay.”
Meanwhile, Mr Mahama has reacted to the portion of the SP report that described him as being the Government Official 1. He expressed disappointment in Mr Amidu for such a conclusion, and also questioned the legal fortitude with which the SP made those observations of him.
Mr Mahama was speaking in an interview with an Accra-based radio station, StarrFM, on Tuesday.
Mr Mahama said: “I’m disappointed in Martin Amidu for putting that paragraph in his report to equalise things; no financial benefit accrued to me; not a single dollar. Legally, he has not a single basis to continue with that investigation. He should show us what investigation he has done; he should tell us who he has spoken to,” Mahama said.
It would be recalled that documents released by a UK court showed that some top representatives from the government of Ghana, under the Mills-Mahama administration, took bribes from the world’s largest airliner manufacturer, Airbus, between 2009 and 2015.
The five million euro bribery scandal instigated public uproar in February this year, and has since caused a partisan blame game.
Before his interview yesterday, former President John Dramani Mahama had broken his silence on the Airbus scandal by dismissing allegations of wrongdoing in the purchase of the two aircraft for the Ghana Armed Forces, and further denied benefiting from the deal financially.
He granted an interview with the Daily Graphic in June this year and said: “Let me state without any equivocation that no financial benefit accrued to me. Neither was there any form of inducement in the purchase of the aircraft. My singular motivation was to equip and retool the Ghana Armed Forces in a manner that would make the discharge of their national and international roles efficient and less burdensome and for all the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform make, they do not deserve less.”
“I am happy that the said aircraft have become the backbone of the Ghana Air Force and its operations. They are used for troop transportation, logistics deployment and medical evacuation,” he stated.

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