Airbus scandal can end Mahama’s presidential ambition – Effah-Dartey

Legal Practitioner, Captain Nkrabea Effah-Dartey says former president Mahama’s ambition to run for another term in office will be over if he is implicated in the Airbus bribery scandal.

On January 21 this year, the Crown Court of England in Southwark fined aeroplane manufacturer Airbus over £3 billion after a Differed Prosecution Agreement was reached between the Serious Fraud Office and Airbus SE, a subsidiary of Airbus, after investigations revealed the company had engaged in a scheme which involved bribing its way to lucrative contracts in countries such as Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Ghana.

In the case of Ghana, it was revealed that the company in a bid to obtain and maintain contracts with the government, either bribed or agreed to bribe intermediaries with close links to a high-ranking state official, who was said to have an influence over the country’s aircraft purchase plans between 2011 and 2015.

Following this revelation, a lot of fingers are being pointed in the direction of the former president, saying Mr. Mahama may be complicit in the scandal which took place between times when he was a vice president and subsequently president of the country.

Speaking to GhanaWeb on the allegations being made against the former president, Captain Effah-Dartey said “if Mahama has been fingered and it turns out to be true then I am sure this is a done deal for his presidential ambition. Because if indeed he was the one who championed the matter and his brother was the so-called consultant and they got this bogus aircraft to be forced on Ghana to buy, then I am sorry for him. Honestly, this will break his presidential ambition. But for me Captain, I have always believed that NDC is corrupt and they are not competent to run the affairs of this nation.”

Following the release of the Crown Courts ruling, president Akufo-Addo has tasked the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu to collaborate with UK officials to conduct a prompt inquiry to determine the complicity or otherwise of any Ghanaian government official, past or present, involved in the scandal, and to take the necessary legal action against any such official, as required by Ghanaian law.

Speaking to GhanaWeb on the task given to the Special Prosecutor, Lawyer Effah Dartey said he is “very happy that the president has been so decisive in tasking the Special Prosecutor to go into the matter with the due to bringing any person found culpable to book.”



He said that that he is of the expectation the special prosecutor will in the coming days be able to unmask the identity of “intermediary 5” and “government official 1” who were extensively referred to in the court’s ruling and followed by their immediate prosecution.

“I expect that within the next one week or so, the special prosecutor at least two people: the two brothers to be brought before the court for prosecution," he added.

In a related development, former Attorney general and Minister of Justice during the erstwhile John Mahama administration Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong in press release has said no government official in the NDC administrations of John Evans Mills and John Mahama received bribes from Airbus and neither was any bribe paid by the company under both administrations.