The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has cleared former President John Dramani Mahama of any wrongdoing in the infamous Airbus bribery scandal.
Addressing the media in Accra today, August 8, 2024, the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, revealed that the unidentified ‘Government Official 1’ and ‘Intermediary 5’ mentioned in the judgments by both the United Kingdom and United States courts were former President Mahama and his brother, Samuel Mahama, respectively.
Mr. Agyebeng said “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.”
He continued “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.”
“It also appears that Foster and his associates became involved as intermediaries in the Airbus-Ghana deal after the decision by the Government of Ghana in preference of the C-295 aircraft. Therefore, it seems that Foster’s Airbus intermediary role at the time his brother served as the Vice President of Ghana was a case of luckless coincidence that attracted the disapproval of the UK and US authorities.
Kissi Agyebeng concluded by clearing the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress saying “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.”
Background
The government of Ghana purchased three military planes from Airbus, a European aerospace company. By the end of 2015, the government had received all three aircraft.
The transaction attracted significant backlash from the public. The then-President of the country, John Dramani Mahama, along with other individuals, was accused of corruption. In response, Mr. Mahama denied reports that he took a bribe to facilitate the purchase of the aircraft.