The UK Southwark Crown Court has no bases admitting into evidence accusations of fraud against another without allowing the accused party opportunity to rebut the accusations even if in a case of a plea bargain. The action is in violation of any legal instrument that guarantees natural justice. It is a smear on Ghana and an attempt to show our country as corrupt.
Mabay & Johnson admitted two counts of conspiracy to corrupt officials in Ghana but how did the Southwark Crown Court find the company guilty of systematically bribing foreign officials (including alleged Ghanaians) with so called “white man’s handshakes.” What kind of evidence was tendered in and why did court and the UK SFO not invite the accused persons to challenge the accusations?
According to the Judge, Geoffrey Rivlin QC, Mabay & Johnson had entered into a “binding undertaking” to make reparations to Ghana, Jamaica and the UN Iraq Fund. Is Mabay & Johnson paying Ghana reparation for levelling unchallenged accusations in a court?
These questions need to be answered by the A-G and she must advise Ghana to seek redress in the International Court of Justice. It is not for Mabay & Johnson to determine how much Ghana gets in reparations for unduly damaging our country’s name. The compensation they are offering is not high enough to ameliorate the damage to Ghana’s image. The whole judgement is flawed and is a travesty of justice against the Ghanaians mentioned, save Boniface Abubakar who has admitted guilt.
The Mills led government’s approach to the allegation against a handful of its officials is a significant effort in the fight against corruption. But energies must be focused at protesting against the mention of Ghana’s name in a case that for now is implausible until proven otherwise by a competent court.
These developments must be a warning to Ghana in its dealings with Britain which seems to validate fraud. It is already emerging that another British company operating in Ghana purportedly paid a £100,000 bribe to former President Kufour as kick-back in the Ghana Telecom deal.
Ghanaians must beware of English officials bearing gifts, especially when undertaking contracts. Many UK companies have a culture of kick backs and Mabay & Johnson was just one of the many that uses “the white man’s handshake” – bribery - to corrupt institutions. That seems to be their stock in trade.
The plea bargain by Mabay & Johnson is a pretext to deflate attention from their violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 661 and 687 and a breach of the UK fraud Act 2006 which upon conviction would have made their officials liable to “imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or a fine or both.”
The entire ruling a smear and makes a mockery of the British justice system which has come under severe criticism especially after the pathetic circumstances of a transfer deal which saw the release Abdul Baset al Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight that killed 270 people.
Accomplishing the “I care for you” agenda is a profoundly serious affair and the challenges are enormous. The country requires huge inputs from the men and women the president has appointed and that is why we must not distract them from performing their duties.
The men and the former First Lady are being accused without any evidence and it would be a loss for our country to deliberately bring people down based on allegations by a bunch of corrupt English aristocrats. It would be a severe loss for our country to penalise the mentioned officials for nothing.
Mohammed Mubarak (Ras Mubarak)
mmubarak79@yahoo.com
