Former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has levelled allegations regarding corruption, payroll fraud, and unlawful recruitment practices within the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).

At the heart of his allegations is an alleged failure to properly vet employees, instead subjecting them to unlawful polygraph tests, a practice which Amidu insists is illegal under Ghanaian law.

“The OSP employees who contacted me are ready, able, and willing to speak at an impartial investigation that they were never vetted by the Ghana Police Administration, and the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).

“The OSP employees assumed that the Special Prosecutor, William Kissi Agyebeng’s, unlawful polygraphing them could pass for vetting under Regulation 7 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Regulations, 2018 (LI 2373) for purposes of their probation and confirmation of appointment under Regulation 12 thereof.

“The first OSP employee to contact me after I had explained the processes of vetting employees of the OSP, stated that: “I am absolutely shocked to my boots by your latest revelation!” When I asked my interlocutor: “Which of the revelations?

“If the police and NIB vetted, you would have known. The police take your fingerprints etc to ensure you are not an ex-convict, and NIB would have done the deep vetting of all schools and certificates on your CV,” the answer was: “I mean the colossal breaches! This employee admitted he was polygraphed, not vetted,” he said in a statement on December 26, 2025.

Amidu further argues that any employee on the OSP payroll who has not been properly vetted could have been fraudulently placed on the government’s payroll through corruption involving the OSP, the Accountant-General’s Department, and the Auditor-General’s Department.

“The letter and the spirit animating the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959) which established the OSP was and is to ensure that the flagship anti-corruption agency that I operationalized as the founding Special Prosecutor employed only men and women of the highest moral character and integrity without whom previous endeavours to fight corruption failed.

“This explains how come I borrowed Regulation 7 and 12 of LI 2373 from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) Regulations in the draft of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Regulations I submitted to Attorney-General Gloria Akuffo for enactment into law.

“I still have copies of all the drafts on LI 2373 and LI 2374 to show the efforts I made to ensure that only people of high moral character and integrity were employed at the OSP.”

The former Special Prosecutor has now called on President John Mahama to take immediate action, demanding an impartial investigation into what he describes as a massive economic crime scene at the OSP.

He insists that failure to do so will undermine Mahama’s credibility in the fight against corruption, warning, “If you fail to deal with the unconstitutional and unlawful appointments and payroll fraud at the OSP, your rhetoric to fight corruption would have been dead on arrival in your first month of assuming office.”

Amidu insisted that the OSP clearing Mahama and his brother Samuel Adam Mahama of any wrongdoing after it investigated the Airbus Scandal should not serve as an excuse for President to shy away from launching a full-scale probe into the OSP’s fraudulent activities.

He argues that Ghana cannot afford selective justice, and that true accountability requires tackling all corruption allegations, including those within the country’s premier anti-corruption institution.

Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Thursday, August 8, 2024, the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, pointed out that the Airbus scandal would not have made headlines around the world if Mahama, who was identified as “Government Official One," was not involved in it.

He said that Mahama had good intentions in the deal to acquire the aircraft in the Airbus deal for the country, adding that his outfit found no evidence of corruption against Mahama, his brother Samuel Adam Mahama, who was identified as Intermediary 5 in the scandal, or any of the accused.

"The OSP investigation found no evidence that former President Mahama was
involved or played any role in the procurement and maintenance of the agency
relationship between Airbus and Foster and his associates in respect of the
purchase by the Government of Ghana of military transport aircraft from
Airbus. And it appears to the OSP that the direct communications and meetings
between former President Mahama and officials of Airbus to close the deal were
actuated by good intentions on the part of the former," said Agyebeng.

The Special Prosecutor added that it found no evidence that suggests that Adam Mahama and his associates were paid bribes to be transferred to Mahama.

He also indicated that the officials of Airbus involved in the transaction were the ones who committed crimes and were merely trying to protect themselves.

"The OSP found no evidence that suggests that the involvement of Foster as an
intermediary of Airbus and the direct communications and meetings between
former President Mahama and officials of Airbus to close the deal between
Airbus and the Government of Ghana amounted to any corruption and
corruption-related offence in respect of which the OSP has a mandate," he said.

Kissi Agyebeng, however, noted that it should have occurred to Mahama and his brother that the deal was bound to raise suspicions of improper conduct.

He said that the president and his vice president should be insulated from such commercial deals.

About the Airbus Scandal:

Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, was alleged to have paid bribes in Ghana when it sold three military aircraft.

The aerospace multinational admitted hiring the brother of a top elected Ghanaian official as its consultant for the pitch to sell the aircraft to the country.

Also, Airbus confessed to paying the said consultant through a third party when its Compliance Unit raised red flags about the close relationship between the consultant and the top elected official, who was a key decision-maker in the purchase of the military aircraft.

Former President John Dramani Mahama was one of the government officials implicated in the scandal, with the former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, alleging that the "Government Official One" label in the scandal referred to the former president.

Amidu, in an epistle, while in office as Special Prosecutor, revealed how John Mahama allegedly used his office to guarantee 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, denied the allegations and challenged Amidu, who was in office at the time, to prosecute him if he was indeed the said Government Official One.

Read his full statement below:



AM/KA

You can also watch Godfred Dame's full speech on legal case withdrawals below: