It is one happening that has the whole nation talking. Three months ago, just before the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic reached our part of the world and confined all of us to our bedrooms, news broke out from the Southwark Crown Court in London that officials in charge of running the State of Ghana, led by ‘Government Official 1, had used a relative based in Britain as an intermediary and succeeded in collecting bribe money to the tune of five million Euros from Airbus International, based in Her Majesty’s Great Britain.
According to court documents, the various bribery episodes were recorded between 2009 and 2015 when the State of Ghana decided to order three transport aircraft from Airbus for use by the military. It was a point in time when come-back Kid John Dramani Mahama sat at the Castle, first as Vice-President, before moving to the then Flagstaff House as Head of State of this Republic.
The UK court identified the main characters involved in the scandal as Government Official 1 and Intermediary 5. The London connection was identified as Intermediary 5, who is said to be a relative of Government Official 1. Court papers said Intermediary 5 was sent to Britain as a child and lost contact with his original base in Ghana until the links were re-established in the 1990s.
Since the story broke out, there have been several plots and sub-plots. First a statement was issued from the Adabraka head office of the National Democratic Congress denying any such development, saying that what happened at the Southwark Crown Court in London on January 31 had no link to Ghana and its government officials.
Purportedly signed by Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, Attorney-General at the time Mr. John Mahama sat at Jubilee House as President of the Republic of Ghana, the NDC denial rather fuelled the blazing fire. Many linked the statement to propaganda agents at the Adabraka office of the opposition party.
“Our attention has been drawn to media reports about a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) entered between Airbus SE and the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office in respect of the practice of Airbus SE in paying commissions to its agents and the use of those commissions. The report alleging that Airbus SE paid bribes during the administration of President J.E.A. Mills and President John Mahama are false, misleading, and do not reflect the approved judgment,” the statement said.
“Indeed, the approved judgment of the Crown Court of Southwark approving the DPA between the Airbus and the UK Serious Fraud Office does not allege that any payment was made by Airbus to any Government Official.
“It is a gross distortion for the media to conclude that officials of the Ghana Government, between 2009 and 2015, were paid any commission by Airbus for the acquisition of the Casa-C29 aircraft.”
Instead of the statement dousing the fire, it rather provided the fuel for it to burn beyond reach. The ruling party, the New Patriotic Party, held a news conference and alleged that the statement was a gargantuan scheme calculated to divert attention from the bribery inferno, and named former President John Dramani Mahama as the person identified in the London Crown Court as Government Official 1.
The Spokesman at the conference, Mr. Yaw Buaben Asamoah, who is the NPP Communication Director, inferred that the man listed as Intermediary 5 is indeed the long- lost son of Mr. Mahama’s father, of whom the former President himself wrote about in his autobiography, My First Coup d’état.
With the British Crown Court verdict poisoning the atmosphere in the already charged political circus in Ghana, Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu weighed in and called political actors in Ghana to order.
“The Office of the Special Prosecutor appeals to the public not to speculate or politicise the disclosure made in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement and Judgment, so as to allow this Office to treat the suspected crime as simplicitar and nothing more, pending the conclusion of the investigation.”
The Special Prosecutor has determined that the said referred prosecution agreement and judgment accompanying them raise reasonable suspicion of the commission of corruption and corruption-related offences of bribery of public officers, and the use of public office for private profit, which are offences falling within the mandate of this office, under the Office of the Special Prosecution Act 2017 (Act 959).
At the same sitting of the Southward Crown Court in London, Airbus SE paid a fine of 3.6 billion Euros as settlement for using public money to go on an international bribery spree.
In Ghana, there is intense pressure on former President John Dramani Mahama to speak on the issue. The former President had written in his autobiography, My First Coup d’état, that his father had a son who was taken to London by a childless British missionary couple when the boy was only nine years old.
He added that the father, one-time Northern Regional Minister, and the entire family could not re-establish contact with the long lost brother until Mr. E.A. Mahama died. It was only in the 1990s, apparently when the former President had entered politics, before he re-established contact with the lost brother.
The description given of Intermediary 5 in the Southwark Crown Court fits Mr. Sam Adam Mahama, the brother in question, according to those who know the family of the departed minister of state. One, therefore, does not need the services of a ghost or soothsayer to connect the two.
Back home, people are openly pointing to the former President as Government Official 1 in the Ghanaian chapter of the deal. There are many out there who are urging the former President to put the matter to sleep by opening up on the bribery scandal, or forget about his decision to contest the Presidency on December 7, this year.
Somehow, the former President has preferred to remain mute, as the political house he is trying hard to rebuild catches the bribery allegation fire. On Monday, the Informer Newspaper, one of the publications in the stable of the NDC, captured an interview Mr. Samuel Okudzeto granted to Onua Television, another information outlet leaning to the cause of the NDC. Under the heading: Airbus Scandal – MAHAMA SPEAKS – Okudzeto Hints, the publication says “National Democratic Congress North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa has hinted of former President John Mahama’s readiness to speak to the Airbus issue.”
Alalua! It means that for the first time since the scandal broke out in London we are going to be told about what actually happened. I hope who got what will also be on the menu.
The paper captured the Minority Spokesman on Foreign Affairs assuring Ghanaians that his boss would give his version on the state of the bribery affair, which has shamed this country in the comity of nations.
Read the lips of the Member of Parliament: “He is speaking thematically, and when it comes as a thematic area, I am sure he will speak to it,” Mr. Okudzeto is reported to have spoken to Onua Television, one of the electronic channels in Ghana that toes the line of the main opposition party.
The MP though, was not specific on the time-line. He said the former President would use one of his usual broadcast channels on U-Tube. And that is my disappointment. I am of the view that in view of the importance of the issue, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, the communicator, would call a press conference to allow some of us to ask cogent questions.
Speaking to Ghana through U-Tube does not allow for any questioning. It would be tantamount to the former head of state hiding in a corner and throwing out any garbage of his choice.
I do not know who advises the former President. If he cares to know, many of us have a fair idea of the underlying nuances. We know a bit about the personalities mentioned. For instance, it is common knowledge that Mr. Sam Adam Mahama is an adopted son of Mr. John Mahama’s father. Up in the north, it is an open secret that Adam was the son of a Nigerian couple forced to leave this country during the Aliens Compliance Order of 1970.
Not wanting their son to come along on what they thought was a hazardous journey into the unknown, the Nigerian couple pleaded with Senior Mahama to adopt Sam as a son. He did.
When the childless British missionary couple came knocking and pleading with Mahama Senior to allow Adam to go with them to the United Kingdom, he obliged. When Sam got to Britain as a child, he could not re-establish contact with his foster home until the former President established contact with him in the 1990s.
As Mr. Mahana prepares to speak on the bribery scandal for the first time, it would be in his own interest to speak the truth, and nothing but the truth. Any attempt to be economical with the truth, would expose him to ridicule and damage his electoral fortunes forever. I am not a member of the Armed Robbers in cassock, but I can see this one coming.
Mr. John Mahama got away with the Ford Exhibition bribery scandal of the immediate past. I do not believe he will be that lucky with the Airbus saga. I wish him well though!
I shall return!
The post Ebo Quansah in Accra: Only the truth will help Mahama in Airbus bribery saga appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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