A Deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Haruna Mohammed, has said the party is happy that the Office of the Special Prosecutor's investigation has pointed out former President John Mahama as "Government Official 1" in the Airbus bribery scandal. 

Speaking on JoyNews on Thursday, August 8, he said the “confirmation has strengthened the case for the NPP," adding that "crime has no expiring date" and that there is always an opportunity to pursue the case. 

Mr. Mohammed also indicated that the party's legal team will review the OSP's report and that the party is content that John Mahama has been confirmed as "Government Official 1." 

"The NPP will state our position, but we are very happy that Government Official 1 is clearly John Mahama,” he said in a report by myjoyonline.com. 

His remarks follow the OSP's designation of former President Mahama as the person identified as "government official 1" in the Airbus bribery case, notwithstanding the latter's observation that there is no proof of bribery directed towards Mahama. 

According to Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, this verdict is the result of a thorough inquiry conducted by his office over a period of four years. 

Addressing the media in Accra, Mr. Agyebeng clarified that the public's interest in the matter made the scandal's inquiry and the participants' identities public. 

"The individual described as Government Official One by the UK court and Individual One by the US court is John Dramani Mahama. He is a citizen of Ghana; he was the Vice President of Ghana from January 7, 2009, to 2012. The President of Ghana from 2012 to January 7, 2017. His tenure of office as Vice President coincided with the time frame of the UK and US investigations of the first Airbus campaign into the sale of 2C295 aircraft to Ghana. 

"His term of office as the President of Ghana occurred during the UK-US investigation time frame of the second Airbus campaign for the sale of 1C29 aircraft to Ghana." 

Mr. Mohammed, meanwhile, called the OSP's probe a "lazy job" and expressed dissatisfaction at the agency's statement that it had not discovered any proof of corruption against Mahama. 

He maintained that, considering the common law framework and shared legal framework, the OSP ought to have pursued the UK court ruling, which addressed Mr. Mahama as "Government Official 1."

He went on to say that a close reading of the UK court's ruling, which takes into account the justices' opinions and case law, could have yielded the proof needed to establish a more compelling case. 

"The OSP has done a lazy job because you can’t conclude by saying that you don’t have all the facts at hand; hence, you cannot prosecute the case. Did he go to ask for the judgment? What was the material used in the judgment in the UK? Has he been denied the judgment?" Mohammed asked. 


KA/OGB