The directive by President Nana Akufo Addo to the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) to takeover Investigations on alleged corrupt deals between the NDC government and Aircraft Manufacturing Company , Airbus SE has been welcomed and described as appropriate.
The Presidency in a press statement signed by Director of Communications under the instructions of Nana Akufo Addo expressed shock and disappointment in the NDC’s government for superintending over fishy deals.
This follows a UK Court sanctioning French aerospace company Airbus to pay over €3.5bn (£2.96bn) in fines globally to settle corruption charges, including almost €1bn to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as part of a record-breaking deferred prosecution agreement (DPA)
As well as the SFO’s sanction of €983.97m (£833m), the company is also to pay €2.08bn to the French regulators and €525m to the US authorities, who took part in a joint investigation.
Details of the penalties were given in a public hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, where the judge said the SFO’s financial sanction is greater than the total of all the previous sums paid pursuant to previous DPAs and more than double the total of fines paid in respect of all criminal conduct in England and Wales in 2018.
The UK regulator began investigating the company over allegations that it had used external consultants to bribe customers to buy its civilian and military aircrafts about four years ago. The indictment, which has been suspended for the term of the DPA, covers five counts of failure to prevent bribery involving Airbus’ commercial and defence & space divisions across five jurisdictions between 2011 and 2015. These are Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Ghana.
But in an interview on A1 Radio , Lawyer Edzudzi Tamakloe shot down the allegations against Former President John Mahama who is at the center of accusations of possibly spearheading the rot.
According to him , issues of bribery and corruption do not give room for speculations as presented in this Airbus scandal.
“When it comes to the issue of bribery and corruption ,there is no room for speculations there must be a giver and there must be a taker. That’s the connection, it is a dual connection . It this point as we speak is there anywhere either in the statement of fact and the approved judgement delivered or the deferred prosecution agreement where it is stated that a Minister of Defense or Mr.John Mahama the then Vice President or Attah Mills the then President or General Smith the then Defense Minister were paid two million cedis or One million pound sterling is there anywhere in the judgement? He questioned
Mr Tamakloe has therefore welcomed the decision by the President to allow the Special Prosecutor ,Martin Amidu to investigate the case describing him as the “right person” to investigate John Mahama in order to unravel the truth.
“ it is all over the place that the President has tasked Martin Amidu to Investigate this matter ,he was actually the Attorney General . This agreement went to Parliament in July 2011 by that time he was the Attorney General and in fact, when this thing went to parliament ,parliament gave approval to it I think 21st July . That 21st July ,there was a legal opinion by the Attorney General in respect of this ,who this legal opinion, have you found out ? I welcome the investigation you know why I welcome the investigation? Because, Martin Amidu is a person who has demonstrated his dislike for John Mahama and so he will not be impartial , he will not show favoritism, he will not cover up anything involving John Mahama and so he is the best person to investigate him so that he can bring the whole truth , nothing but the truth” he noted
Source:A1radioonline.com/101.1MHZ/Ghana
