The Office of the Special Prosecutor has confirmed that the individual referred to Government Official 1 by the UK court and Individual 1 by the US court in the Airbus scandal is former President John Mahama.
Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng made this known while briefing the media on the Office’s findings of the case.
According to Mr Agyebeng, the UK and US courts muffled the identities of the government officials involved in the case.
He, however, said, “we deem it necessary to reveal the identity of some of the individuals owing to the very heightened interest in the fact that the conduct of airbus was held by the up UK and US court to be able to aimed at courting undue favor and advantage from Ghanaian public officials and an elected high government official in the sale of C292 aircraft to Ghana and the persons held to be closely associated with the conduit of the courting of such undue favor and advantage….”
“The individual described as Government Official 1 by the UK court and Individual 1 by the US court is John Dramani Mahama,” the Special Prosecutor said.
About the Airbus scandal
Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, was accused of paying bribes in Ghana during the sale of three military aircraft.
The aerospace company acknowledged hiring the brother of a prominent Ghanaian official as its consultant for the sale of the aircraft to the country.
Additionally, Airbus admitted to making payments to the consultant through a third party after its Compliance Unit raised concerns about the close relationship between the consultant and the senior Ghanaian official, who played a significant role in the military aircraft purchase.
Former President John Dramani Mahama was among the government officials implicated in the scandal, with former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu suggesting that the label “Government Official One” in the scandal referred to the former president.
In a communication during his tenure as Special Prosecutor, Amidu disclosed how John Mahama allegedly leveraged his position to secure a Ghanaian passport for his brother, Samuel Adam Mahama.
Martin Amidu said, “Amongst other reasons for the letter to the said Ministry, Samuel Adam Mahama’s elder brother of full blood, who without a doubt and the evidence available to this Office answers to the description of the elected Government Official 1, allegedly granted a denial interview to the Daily Graphic which published the same on June 20, 2020, fortunately containing suspected admissions that he is the elected Government Official 1 referred to in the UK judgement.
“Serving appointees of this government have been unable to obtain the voice recording of this interview to enable the Office to confront the former president with his own admissions in the interview as answering to the description of the brother of Samuel Adam Mahama as Intermediary 5.”
John Mahama, however, refuted the allegations and urged Martin Amidu, who was serving as Special Prosecutor at the time, to prosecute him if he was indeed the individual referred to as Government Official One.