A Deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Haruna Mohammed is happy the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s investigation has identified former President John Mahama as “Government Official 1” in the Airbus bribery scandal.
In an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Thursday, August 8, he said the “confirmation has strengthened the case for the NPP”, adding that “crime has no expiring date,” and that the case can be pursued at any time.
Mr Mohammed also mentioned that the NPP’s lawyers will review the OSP’s report and that the party is satisfied with the identification of John Mahama as “Government Official 1.”
“The NPP will state our position but we are very happy that the government official one is clearly John Mahama,” he added.
His comment comes after the OSP named former President Mahama as the individual referenced as ‘Government official 1’ in the Airbus bribery scandal but noted there’s no evidence to show that he was paid any bribes.
This conclusion, according to the Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, follows an extensive investigation spanning four years by his office.
Addressing the media in Accra, Mr Agyebeng explained that the investigation into the scandal and the revelation of the identities of the persons involved was necessary due to the public interest in the issue.
“The individual described as Government Official One by the UK court and Individual One by the US court is John Dramani Mahama. He is a citizen of Ghana, he was the Vice President of Ghana from 7th January 2009 to 2012. The President of Ghana from 2012 to 7th January 2017. His tenure of office as the Vice President coincided with the time frame of the UK and US investigation of the first Airbus campaign into the sale of 2C295 aircraft to Ghana.
“His term of office as the President of Ghana occurred during the UK-US investigation time frame of the second Airbus campaign for the sale of 1C29 aircraft to Ghana.”
However, Mr Mohammed who was not enthused about the OSP indicating that it found no evidence of corruption against Mahama described the OSP’s investigation as a “lazy job”.
He argued that the OSP should have sought the court ruling from the UK, which referred to Mr Mahama as “Government Official 1,” given the shared legal framework under common law.
He further elaborated that a thorough examination of the UK court’s judgement, which includes the opinions and legal references of the judges, could have provided the necessary evidence to build a stronger case.
“The OSP has done a lazy job because you can’t conclude by saying that you don’t have all the facts at hand; hence you cannot prosecute the case. Did he go to ask for the judgement? What was the material used in the judgement in the UK? Has he been denied the judgement?” Mohammed questioned.
Source: Myjoyonline
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