Mr Edudzie Tamakloe, a member of the Legal Team for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has revealed Mr Martin Amidu, then the Attorney General and now, Special Prosecutor, gave legal clearance for the purchase of aircrafts from the now scandalized aircraft dealers, Airbus.
Mr Tamakloe made the assertion while speaking in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem show on Monday.
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“The Finance Ministry on June 1, 2011 wrote to Martin Amidu at a time when he was the Attorney General seeking for a legal opinion on the purchase of the aircrafts which he gave. And it was based on his legal opinion that government even bought the aircrafts,” he said.
“On July 20 and 21, 2011, this particular aircraft buying issue case was sent to parliament for approval; it was debated over and over and I remember vividly that, Mr Kyei Mensah Bonsu argued about value-for-money in the government’s bid to buy these aircrafts but in the end, it was approved by parliament for the aircrafts to be bought,” he added.
According to Mr Tamakloe, Mr Amidu as the AG then, knew the persons involved in the dealings with Airbus and even met with them on one occasion when he needed more information on the transactions and not for once did he have issues with it.
Noting Mr Amidu’s familiarity with the alleged bribery of John Mahama and some other government officials, when he (Martin Amidu) had no issues with it, Mr Tamakloe wonders what rot Mr Amidu is going to unravel.
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“He (Martin Amidu) as the AG as at that time knew the persons involved and he never had an issue with it, even after the purchase of the aircrafts he met with persons involved for additional information. So what exactly is Amidu going to investigate and unravel,” he quizzed.
Mr Tamkloe is of the view, the charge by President Akufo-Addo for issue to be investigated by the Special Prosecutor for any wrongdoing is needless as nothing will indict former President Mahama and any government official of the previous administration, since the purchase of the aircrafts went through the right processes.
Airbus, Europe’s largest aerospace multinational in a UK Court admitted to paying huge bribes in order to secure high-valued contracts in Ghana, under the erstwhile Mills-Mahama administration for which it was slapped with a fine of £ 3 billion euros (£3bn) as penalties.
The Office of the President following findings from the case, issued a statement directing the Special Prosecutor, Mr Martin Amidu, to investigate the complicity or otherwise of any public official who may have been involved the bribery scandal.