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Opinions of Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Columnist: Sarpong, Justice

President Mahama, Come Clean On The E&P Plane Scandal

Why is the Engineers and Planners(E&P) company jet in trust at the Utah Bank in USA? That should be a question that needs to be pursued to find out the reason behind this arrangement. We know now that the Plane belongs to Engineers and Planners(E&P)

“Engineers and planners had issued a statement in which they clarified the issues. They state without fear of equivocation that the President has never travelled on the Engineers and Planners jet. Secondly Government has not sent any delegation that has travelled in that jet to Iran and I believe that should end the matter.”

Oh not so fast, Ofosu Kwakye. Can the Deputy Minister of "Misinformation" tell us why this plane seems to be everywhere the Presidents travels to? This plane was seen in Iran, Davos, Switzerland, London, England and other places where the President of Ghana was at the same time.

In order for the Mahama family to pursue its frivol lifestyle, this plane was bought by Mahama family to do what it is doing now, to transport government officials and businessmen who will accompany the President and other government officials and charge them exorbitant fares for the flights which is putting more money in the pockets of the Mahama family. I hope Ibrahim Mahama is not cuittling his brother to give him this transportation contract for some underhand deals they have done earlier. It seems like Ibrahim Mahama holds a passé-partout that enables him to walk through the vaults holding Ghanaian assets and these free educated Mahama brothers banking on the alphabetic Ghanaian populace seems to be getting away with 'murder'.

In USA, usually the President and government Officials put their business interest in trusts to avoid conflict of interest like this whereby the President's brother is reaping financial benefits from his proximity to power. This is why Ibrahim Mahama is trying to hide his interest in this plane. You put your plane in trust and it is the only plane transporting government officials and businessmen who accompany the President in his foreign travels, very strange if not bribery and corruption. Mahama is not a government official so why is he doing business with the government with asset in trust if he is not trying to hide something? This is because Ghanaian taxpayers are being fleeced by high transportation charges.

Ghanaian citizens are calling on government to clarify the obvious contradiction between an official statement issued by the Iranian government Friday that the plane carried Ghana government officials to Tehran for official meetings with the government of Iran and a statement subsequently issued by the company of President Mahama’s brother that the plane only carried a group of business people from Ghana.According to the New York Times, Iran’s Foreign Ministry, bombarded with questions over why an American plane was parked at the airport, said on Friday that the plane had been used to transport top Ghanaian officials as part of a broader push to expand cooperation between the two countries.

I don't know how long Ghanaians will be able to tolerate this scandal embroiled administration averaging one scandal per week on average.

As Michael Jackson said, "Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons." No matter how long President Mahama stays in power, the truth about all the scandals going on in his administration will come out one day and he and his family will be made to account for them.

SERVICE TO MY NATION, GHANA

Justice Sarpong

(CARDINAL of TRUTH)