Airbus scandal: Open up and clear the air - Osei Kyei Mensah to Mahama

Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, has called on former President John Mahama to open up to be probed, following allegations of his involvement in the Airbus scandal. This he says will confirm his commitment to transparency and accountability.

A UK court document revealed that some top representatives from government of Ghana, under the John Mahama administration took bribes to procure three Airbus C-295 aircrafts for the Ghana Army.

When asked if the former president has questions to answer regarding the Airbus deal, Osei Kyei Mensah said; “The issue then which we raised in 2011 was about suspicion and we wrote to the three centres involved in the purchase, the one in Brazilian, Spain and finally in France but we hit a roadblock in all of them”

“I think if President John Mahama is committed to transparency and accountability, he should open himself up for these institutions [Special Prosecutor, EOCO, and Auditor General] to probe into it,” he told CitiFM’s Eye Witness News segment on January 3.

According to the majority leader, a strong parliament would’ve challenged the NDC’s government moves for the purchase of the aircrafts.

“It is not about witch hunt; I don't want us to go on that tangent. It is about having value for money so that going forward as a country we do what is right. The issues about corruption that we often cite — perceived or real– I keep insisting is that Parliament, that is the prime body that is supposed to be playing an active oversight over the Executive is not really doing what is expected of it because of some mortal wounds; constitutional, statutory and also some of them self-inflicted. So, we must deal with these things. And I think we must strengthen Parliament because once we are able to strengthen Parliament, I am sure we will be able to put a lot of these matters behind us as a country,” he suggested.

Yesterday, the ruling NPP party held a press conference in Accra claiming that one Samuel Adams Mahama is the true face behind the “Intermediary 5” in the famous Airbus scandal.

According to the party, Samuel Mahama is the long lost brother of former president Mahama who played “go-between” services between Airbus and “Government Official 1” as cited in the court documents.