Atubiga warns of chaos if Mahama is invited over Airbus scandal

According to the failed National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential aspirant, the party has directed Mr Mahama not to speak on the Airbus saga.

"It is a decision taken by the party that Mahama will not honour any invitation on Airbus, put me on record" Atubiga warned on Neat FM.

"Any judge who sits on such a case will vanish" he threatened. "This country will turn upside down if even a letter is sent to John Dramani Mahama on the Airbus matter."

Former president Mahama, who is leading the NDC into the 2020 election, has come under pressure to clarify his role in the purchase of three aircraft by the Ghana Armed Forces under the Mills administration.

Airbus claimed to have paid bribes to elected an government official in Ghana between 2009 and 2015. At the time, Mr Mahama was the chairman of the Armed Forces Council.

Early this week, a Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Dame called on Mahama to cooperate with investigations into the Airbus scandal.

He argued that the former President has been fingered in the deferred prosecution agreement and must answer to the Ghanaian people.

"The key government officials of Ghana who negotiated illicitly for fraud to get three aircraft for Ghana have maintained utter silence about the same as if there were no such transactions or the principal actors do not exist" Dame said.

On January 31, Ghana was cited as one of five countries in which global aerospace group, Airbus SE, allegedly bribed or promised payments to senior officials in exchange for business favours between 2009 and 2015, according to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.

The scandal caused a political storm in Ghana over accusations of Airbus payments to a relative of a government official in connection with the purchase of military planes.