The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has suggested that former President John Dramani Mahama is the elected government official who was unnamed in the recent Airbus SE scandal.
According to the party “at this moment, allegedly, all fingers point to him and one of his brothers. His long-lost brother who he found in the UK”.
Revealing 2011 Hansard shows NPP suspected GH₵10m ‘kickback’ on Airbus deal
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Monday, Director of Communications of the NPP, Yaw Buaben Asamoa said: “It is very necessary for candidate Mahama to come out and be heard publicly”.
The firm confirmed the exchange of monies in Ghana and other countries in a report which said the bribes took place between 2011 and 2015.
UK Court document alleged a Ghanaian elected government official and his relative worked in the acquisition of three Airbus C-295 military aircraft. The relative of this official received 3.9 million euros from the transaction.
Read: NDC vs NPP parliamentary debate in July 2011 over Airbus deal
Airbus, however, reached a settlement of 3 billion euros with authorities to avoid criminal proceedings against Europe’s aerospace giants for the bribes.
Mr Buabeng, who claimed that Mr Mahama avoids answers to corruption questions emphasised that: “The companies used to receive the bribe money have been named in the court records, the shareholder who is very close to the former president has also been named, document falsification, kickbacks, lies and overpayments is what the Airbus scandal is all about and it appears former president John Dramani Mahama is deeply involved”.
He added that: “at the time he (Mr Mahama) was the President. He presided over the deals he was the key decision-maker and he inaugurated the aircraft when they arrived in Ghana”.
Even though the flagbearer of the NDC is yet to comment, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice in the Mahama administration, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, described the reports as “false, misleading and do not reflect the Approved Judgment.”
She is not the only high-rank member of the party to react as General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah holds the view that the development is a diversionary tactic. Mr Nketiah said they are ready for a probe by the Office of the Special Prosecutor so far as President Akufo-Addo is willing to also investigate claims of graft against his the current government in relation to missing excavators, among others.