The former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has detailed the status of the investigation into the Airbus scandal before he left office.
In an editorial criticising ‘the selective investigation’ by his successor, Kissi Agyebeng, Martin Amidu refuted some of the claims made by Agyebeng on the Airbus scandal.
He said that the claim by the current special prosecutor that he started engagements with authorities in the United Kingdom and the United States of America (USA) was false.
Amidu, a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, said that he was the one who commenced the processes that led to the issuance of arrest warrants for the persons implicated.
"On July 4, 2023, Kissi Agyebeng not only published the OSP Airbus SE Ghana investigations as part of his half-yearly report but went ahead to state that: ‘Investigation is ongoing in respect of alleged bribery by Airbus SE, a European multinational aerospace corporation, regarding the sale and purchase of military aircrafts for the Republic. The Office is engaged with INTERPOL and the central authorities of the United Kingdom and the United States under the mutual legal assistance regime’.
“The true facts are that I made the request for Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) through the Office of the Attorney-General (the Ghana Central Authority) to the Central Authorities of the United Kingdom and the United States of America before conducting an independent investigation which necessitated charges and the issuance of warrants of arrest for four UK nationals for whom I caused the INTERPOL Red Notices to be issued,” he wrote.
He added that by the time he left office, no official communication had been received from the authorities in the UK and the USA, which forced the OSP to start its own investigation.
“At the time I left office as the founding Special Prosecutor on 16 November 2020, no response had been received to the request for MLA from the UK and the USA. It became obvious to the OSP that the assistance it sought from the USA and the UK was not going to be forthcoming. The OSP, therefore, started its own independent investigations using its own sources and methods that allowed it to successfully obtain the Interpol Red Notices, which have since been pending for the extradition of those four suspects or fugitives should they step out of the UK.”
He said that the investigation into the Airbus scandal was suspended before the 2020 election after his advice and suggestions were 'reluctantly consented to’ by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
He said that the agreement was that the investigation would continue after the 2020 elections, adding that he does not understand why that did not happen under the acting special prosecutor.
Read Amidu's full statement on the Airbus Scandal below:
THE AIRBUS SE GHANA CASE
On 4 July 2023, Kissi Agyebeng not only published the OSP Airbus SE Ghana investigations as part of his half-yearly report but went ahead to state that:
“Investigation is ongoing in respect of alleged bribery by Airbus SE, a European multinational aerospace corporation, regarding the sale and purchase of military aircrafts for the Republic. The Office is engaged with INTERPOL and the central authorities of the United Kingdom and the United States under the mutual legal assistance regime.”
The true facts are that I made the request for Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) through the Office of the Attorney- General (the Ghana Central Authority) to the Central Authorities of United Kingdom, and the United States of America before conducting an independent investigation which necessitated charges and the issuance of warrants of arrest for four UK nationals for whom I caused the INTERPOL Red Notices to be issued.
At the time I left office as the founding Special Prosecutor on 16 November 2020 no response had been received to the request for MLA from the UK and the USA. It became obvious to the OSP that the assistance it sought from the USA and the UK was not going to be forthcoming. The OSP, therefore, started its own independent investigations using its own sources and methods that allowed it to successfully obtain the INTERPOL Red Notices which have since been pending for the extraditions of those four suspects or fugitives should they step out of the UK.
The investigations within Ghana proceeded with great difficulty as there was lack of cooperation from the Government entities involved and the OSP could not access their computers and internet systems to mine for emails and other correspondences to access vital information at the time of the transaction. Consequently, no vital witnesses to identify collaborators within the Government of Ghana at the time for interrogation as suspects in the case could be found. The OSP developed its own list of prospective suspects from its own sources and methods without the supporting emails from the relevant public institutions.
This was the state of affairs when the former Vice President and President during the period the Airbus SE transactions were consummated granted an interview to a reporter of the Daily Graphic which became of interest to the OSP. Requests by the OSP to the relevant Government agencies to make available the voice recording of that interview to the OSP to form the foundation for inviting the former President for interrogation fell on deaf ears. The country was in the 2020 elections mode by September 2020. The President very reluctantly consented to my briefing and suggestions, and I instructed the suspension of the investigation until after the 2020 elections.
I shall explain the origin of the equalization observations, and who was reasonably suspected to be Government Official 1 as contained in the Agyapa Royalties Transactions Report, and the circumstances of that particular observation in another and later discourse. Suffice it to say that an observation on the OSP Airbus SE Ghana investigations which was not the subject matter of reporting embedded in the Agyapa Royalties Transactions Report as the main subject matter of the report was a mere bubble for the rational and reasonable person. The rabble, and the mischievous politician, will of course take such bubble observations seriously for political point scoring and continue to do so.
The Acting Special Prosecutor, to whom I formally handed over my tenure was not bound by my decisions on the OSP Airbus SE Ghana case, but she also for unstated reasons chose not to continue the investigations after my exit and after the 2020 elections. After announcing the suspension of the OSP Airbus SE Ghana investigations until after the 2020 presidential election, I got occupied with the Agyapa Royalties Transactions Anti-Corruption Assessment. The findings of the Agyapa Royalties Transactions Report led me to the one and only conclusion that whatever was suspected to have taken place in the OSP Airbus SE Ghana corruption investigations was just child’s play as compared to the sinking fund and annuity created by the Nana Akufo-Addo Government in the Agyapa Royalties Transactions procurement malpractices and abuse of public office for private profit anti-corruption assessment report.
Kissi Agyebeng during his approval by Parliament told Parliament on oath that he would investigate the corruption offences disclosed in the Agyapa Royalties Transactions Report. However, the Special Prosecutor assumed office since 9 August 2021 and up to today, he has refused or failed to redeem his oath before Parliament. I insinuated that he was nominated to be an Agyapa Special Prosecutor which he vehemently denied during his vetting. The passing years have proved that he is indeed an Agyapa Special Prosecutor appointed to protect the suspects disclosed in the Agyapa Royalties Transactions Report by not conducting a formal investigation as demanded by the report.
I had to resign on 16 November 2020 as the Special Prosecutor because the President reneged on an agreement allowing me to open a formal investigation into the Agyapa Royalties Transactions after the 2020 elections. Kissi Agyebeng might be under the same restraint as the reason for perjuring his oath to Parliament to investigate that matter. Kissi Agyebeng, however, professes an interest in the OSP Airbus SE Ghana investigations in contrast to the Agyapa Royalties Transactions investigations because he was appointed to protect Agyapa, for which reason I had named him the Agyapa Special Prosecutor on being nominated as the Special Prosecutor by his classmates and friends with an interest in the Agyapa Royalties Transactions.
On 4 May 2021, before Kissi Agyebeng was appointed the Special Prosecutor on 5 August 2021, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was reported to “have quietly closed its investigation in individuals associated with the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus”. It was reported that “the closure finalizes a long-running investigation into fraud, bribery, and corruption allegations across the civil and military aviation businesses at Airbus”. The implication of the closure of the UK investigations was that the four British suspects of Ghana’s MLA request were persons in respect of whom the UK-SFO had not found any reason to charge for any offences under their Airbus SE investigations. It was, therefore, going to be almost impossible to get the UK Government to provide any MLA in investigations it had closed in respect of its own nationals. It may be recalled that during my tenure as the Special Prosecutor I had tried to get the British High Commission in Ghana and the Ghana High Commission in the UK to intervene for early MLA results without success.
The OSP Airbus SE Ghana investigations lay dormant under the successor of the founding Special Prosecutor for eleven (11) months without any action, and for almost two (2) years under Kissi Agyebeng’s Special Prosecutorship without any concrete action only to be resurrected for purely political electioneering purposes on 4 July 2023. Ghanaians, therefore, need to know from Kissi Agyebeng who has perjured his approval oath on investigating the Agyapa Royalties Transactions upon whose instructions he revived the dormant OSP Airbus SE Ghana investigations which is dead and buried for all intents and purposes, just for the 2024 elections season.
Ghanaians need to be told that the OSP had not submitted depositions in respect of the four fugitives to INTERPOL Ghana to be sent to the INTERPOL General Secretariat to be kept and delivered to the requested country as soon as the suspects are located. This could not be done immediately without completing the interrogation of the prime suspects within Ghana and to avoid the leakage of the facts and evidence affecting the on-going investigations. The interrogations never took place before I left the office. OSP under the Acting Special
Prosecutor did not have the ability to submit the depositions. I wonder whether Kissi Agyebeng who is taking credit for work he came to meet has had the ability to submit those depositions to INTERPOL Ghana for submission to the INTERPOL General Secretariat before claiming to be engaged with INTERPOL. Kissi Agyebeng is using the OSP Airbus SE Ghana investigations for political electioneering three years after the issuance of the INTERPOL Red Notice without the accompanying depositions for the alleged fugitives.
BAI/SEA
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