General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has described a recent ‘airbus bribery’ scandal that has dominated the country’s media space as a diversionary tactic.
Mr Nketia has opined that the government was using claims that bribes were paid to some government officials under the administration of the late Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills and John Mahama by Airbus to take attention from some very important national issues.
“Whenever the NPP has its back to the wall, it finds a way of diverting the attention of the nation to something else. This bribery scandal is an attempt by the NPP to divert the attention of the nation from the electoral register,” he told Joy News on Monday.
A confident Mr Nketia reiterated the party’s readiness to be investigated by the current government.
“We are open and ready for any investigation, let them come and investigate us,” he said.
Asked about what he makes of President Akufo-Addo charging the Special Prosecutor, Mr Martin Amidu to investigate the matter, Mr Nketia answered: So does the president want to tell me he hasn’t heard about some excavators that have gone missing without a trace? I don’t answer questions based on speculations. I’m not a speculator. I answer questions based on facts.
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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has tasked the Office of the Special Prosecutor to conduct an inquiry into the involvement of any public official, “past or present” who may have engaged in the bribery scandal.
A statement signed by Eugene Arhin, Director of Communications at the Presidency said the Office of the Special Prosecutor is to collaborate with its UK counterparts to conduct a prompt inquiry to determine the complicity or otherwise of any Ghanaian government official, past or present, involved in the said scandal.
Ghana was named among Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Taiwan as a country whose officials benefited from huge sums of bribes paid by Europe’s largest aerospace multinational, to secure high-value contracts between 2011 and 2015.