Is SP a judge or a prosecutor: Has the competent SFO exonerated Mahama, the Airbus GO1?

The Office of the Special Prosecutor’s recent controversial conclusions on the investigation of Europe’s aerospace multinational Airbus bribes to officials of Ghana during the Mills/Mahama administration between 2009 and 2015 have sent shock waves across the length and breadth of the country

Sometime in 2020, following on from the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office’s Airbus thematic probe, President Akufo-Addo instructed the then Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu to investigate the identity of the said Government Official 1, who was implicated in the Airbus shameful bribery and corruption scandal.

Suffice it to say, following the investigation into the damning scandal, the Office of the Special Prosecutor finally concluded that the said Government Official 1 in the Airbus embarrassing bribery scandal was the former president and the 2020 flagbearer of NDC, John Dramani Mahama.

The report, however, concluded that since we were in the election period and the said protagonist was a presidential candidate, the Office of the Special Prosecutor was not in a position to take any immediate action.

Strangely, however, former President John Dramani Mahama furiously came out and rubbished the report and referred to the findings of the Airbus bribery scandal investigation as nothing but “stupidity” of the highest order (emphasis mine).

The incumbent Special Prosecutor dutifully continued with the investigation to the delight of the good people of Ghana.

Bizarrely, however, the OSP has established that Mahama is the Government Official 1 as indicated by Martin Amidu, the former SP, but found no wrong doing on the part of Mahama. How ironic?

The all-important question every concerned Ghanaian should be asking is: If Mahama knew all along that he was the Government Official 1 in the embarrassing Airbus bribery scandal, why did he keep denying?

I must confess, some of us were extremely hopeful that with the arrival of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the justice system was going to descend heavily not only on the goat, cassava and plantain thieves, but as well as the hardened criminals who hide behind the narrow political colorations. Needless to say, that has not been the case.

Ghana, so to speak, has been losing billions of dollars since the adoption of the Fourth Republican Constitution to the remorseless nation wreckers who take delight in swindling the state to the detriment of the poor and disadvantaged Ghanaians, and yet the methods employed by the successive governments in fighting the apparent canker have been extremely disappointing.

One such disgusting corruption scandals is the Europe’s aerospace multinational Airbus deliberate huge payments of bribes to a few countries including Ghana in order to secure contracts during Mills/Mahama administration between 2009 and 2015.

In fact, the Airbus bribery scandal involving some government officials in a few countries, including Ghanaian officials, remains the most single shameful and disgusting scandal of international proportion in the history of Ghanaian politics.

As a matter of fact, in any equitable jurisdiction, the suspects of the revoltingly ugly Airbus bribery scandal would have faced the full force of the law without fear or favour.

It is quite ironic that while the erudite English law luminaries are seriously saying that the Airbus deliberately paid bribes to some selected countries including Ghana with the view to obtaining contracts, the Ghanaian counterparts, many of whom are the indigenes of Akan, Ewe, Dagomba, Dagarti, Frafra, Kusase, Gonja, Mamprusi, Sisala, Mossi, etc., are contending vehemently that the said payment should rather be called commission and not bribe. How pathetic?

Another area of interest is the seeming baseless debate that surrounds the identity of the elected government official one, who was cited in the Airbus bribery report.

Whilst the critics were arguing somewhat vigorously that the said official could be a prominent member of the opposition NDC, the diehard supporters of the main suspect were incredibly denying such allegation.

Interestingly, the governance experts maintained back then that only three people could possibly fit into the description of the said government official one, who was mentioned in the Airbus bribery scandal thematic report.

According to the experts, the first suspect should be the first gentleman of the land.

So, based on the experts apt description, the first gentleman during the period 2009 to 2012 should have been the late President Mills.

However, according to the report, the said elected government official one was still in power in 2015, while President Mills had sadly departed from the earth.

So, the late Mills could not have been the government official one, as a matter of fact.

The next possible suspect, according to the experts, should be the vice president during the period stated.

Apparently, the former president and the 2024 NDC flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama fits that description.

The governance experts stressed further that the other person who could fit into the description of the government official one, mentioned in the Airbus corruption scandal should be the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) at the time.

Nevertheless, according to the experts, the CDS between 2009 and 2015 was not an elected government official. So he could not have been the said government official one cited in the Airbus corruption scandal report.

In synopsising, therefore, it should not take superior powers of the mind or a professorial in rocket science to arrive at the identity of the said government official one, mentioned in the shameful Airbus corruption scandal.

What, appeared much more bizarre though, was that the offending organisation, the Airbus, somehow admitted under oath paying huge bribes to the representatives of the countries involved and consequently fined a humongous penalty in excess of £3 billion.

Interestingly, however, the main culprit, who was a top government official one, cited in the report, was, and still is, a prominent member of the opposition NDC. So, the political gimmicks and the seeming denials by the vociferous NDC faithful were nothing out of the ordinary.

In fact, the NDC loyalists argument that the Airbus payment was a commission and not bribe was out of order.

If, indeed, the payment to the Ghanaian representatives was a mere commission, how then would the Airbus agree to pay a staggering penalty in excess of £3 billion?

Based on the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office’s incontrovertible evidence, We cannot help, but to disagree with the OSP: the Airbus indeed paid massive bribes to officials of some selected countries including Ghana in order to gain trading advantage over its competitors.

As it stands, the Ghana’s top government official one has not been exonerated by the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office.

How serious are we as a nation when we can only descend heavily on the goat, cassava and plantain thieves, and let go the unrepentant criminals who persistently dip their hands into the national coffers as if there is no tomorrow?

K. Badu, UK.

k.badu2011@gmail.com