Mahama must step down as NDC flagbearer - Awal Mohammed

A communicator of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Awal Mohammed, has said National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, has no credibility to contest the 2020 elections.

He said former President John Dramani Mahama is the “Government Official 1” mentioned in a bribery allegation involving the European aviation giant, Airbus.

“In the face of these facts, it is very necessary for president Mahama to come out and be heard publicly about the Airbus scandal,” Awal Mohammed exclusively told Kwaku Dawuro on ‘Medo Ghana’ on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7

"Mahama has no credibility to contest the 2020 elections, we can’t have a President who is involved in several corruption scandals, this kind of behavior must not be accepted in this country, he must immediately step down as the flagbearer of the NDC,” he added.

Airbus entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, with the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which was investigating the company for bribing or failing to prevent corruption in transactions in five countries, including Ghana.

The mention of Ghana in the agreement has sparked a flurry of political activity with the opposition NDC issuing a statement denying that its officials in the erstwhile Mills and Mahama administrations were involved in any corruption with Airbus, which supplied military aircraft to Ghana in 2012.

The deferred prosecution agreement didn’t specifically name any officials who might have been bribed or corrupted during Ghana’s negotiations with Airbus but it refers to personalities involved as Government Official 1 (a high-ranking elected public figure) and Intermediary 5 (a British national and close relative of Government Official 1), among others.