I’ll arrest all greedy people involved in Airbus Scandal - Amidu vows

Despite the numerous challenges that have plagued the discharge of his duties as Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu has taken a keen interest in the Airbus scandal which now revolves around a brother of former President John Dramani Mahama.

The Special Prosecutor has assured Ghanaians that his office will at all cost, rake in the excessively greedy individuals who squandered state resources in the controversial Airbus scandal.

In a statement detailing the reasons for his Interpol Red Notice request, Mr Amidu explained that though his request has generated controversy in political discourses over the past days, he remains resolute in further unravelling the identities of other accomplices in the scandal.

His statement dated July 23, 2020, reads in part; “The SP wishes to assure Ghanaians that his office will, despite all the manpower and structural resources constraints militating against its operations, continue to treat crime simply as crime in fulfilling his mandate of fighting corruption without fear or favour, affection or ill will.”

Mr Amidu added that “the SP wishes to inform Ghanaians that his office has conducted an independent investigation and gathered credible evidence for the steps it has taken so far and will continue to take in the gluttonous Airbus SE (Ghana) bribery case.”

With specific regards to allegations of political witch-hunting from the camps of the opposition NDC, Mr Amidu established his unwillingness to wade into a politically branded discourse which he believes are being instigated by young ‘unethical lawyers.’

He wrote, “Some of the unethical lawyers who were assaulting the person and character of the SP on the airwaves are lawyers who are in their twenties and early thirties: they have not yet cut their teeth at the Ghana Bar. The SP refused to be drawn into the affray of turning law into politics as is the forte of those unethical and inexperienced lawyers with no or very limited distinguished courtroom practice vindicating their standing as lawyers in the Ghana Law Reports,” he added.

Adam Mahama, brother of former President John Dramani Mahama on the other hand, is likely to face up to 25 years in prison for “accepting a bribe to influence a public officer” and also “acting in collaboration with a public officer for the public officer’s private profit”.

Per Interpol’s Red Notice, Adam Mahama together with three others are being hunted for their individual roles in accepting and paying €3,909,756 bribe on behalf of AIRBUS SE, to some key Ghanaian public officials from 2009 to 2015.