President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has referred the Airbus bribery scandal to the Office of the Special Prosecutor for immediate investigations.
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Airbus scandal: Why will you burden Amidu with such a difficult job? - NDC man asks Nana Addo
A member of the communication and legal teams of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba, has said it will be difficult for the Office of the Special Prosecutor to collaborate with the U.K Serious Fraud Office to investigate the Ghanaian top official who was allegedly bribed by Airbus between 2009-2015 in the now-famous airbus military aircraft scandal.
Abraham Amaliba
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A letter signed by Communications Director at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin stated that these investigations are expected to be conducted in collaboration with the United Kingdom authorities.
The reports which emerged after the company admitted in a UK court that it paid bribes to officials in some five countries including Ghana between 2009 and 2015 have sparked rumours in Ghana.
Some Ghanaians have challenged the NDC which was in charge of the governance of the country during the period to respond to the claims.
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Airbus Ghana
Pulse Ghana
In a statement, the former minister of Justice Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong said the media has misrepresented the facts as happened in the court.
"Our attention has been drawn to media reports about a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) entered between Airbus SE and the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office in respect of the practice of Airbus SE in paying commission to its agents and the use of those commissions. The reports alleging that Airbus SE paid bribes during the administration of President John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama are false, misleading and do not reflect the Approved Judgment.
"Indeed, the Approved Judgment of the Crown Court of Southwark approving the DPA between Airbus and the UK Serious Fraud Office does not allege that any payment was made by Airbus to any Ghanaian Government official," the statement said.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu
Pulse Ghana
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It added: "It is, therefore, a gross distortion for the media to conclude that officials of the Ghana Government between 2009 and 2015 were bribed or paid any commissions by Airbus for the acquisition of the Casa C-295 aircrafts".
But Amaliba said Martin Amidu will struggle to probe the Airbus controversies tasked him by the President.
He stated that there are easier jobs the president could have given the Special prosecutor to work on.
In an interview on Accra-based Starr FM, he said "Now you give this difficult task, now martin Amidu has to go fishing, he must identify who is government officer 1 and then meet those people and all that. There was a reason the court did not mention names; because the said government were not heard in the trial.
"There are many easy cases that could be dealt with by Martin but you ignore that and give him such a difficult task. There many such cases around the president but he is jumping all of them. I don't know why he will burden Mr. Amidu with such difficult jobs."
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