The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, says the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s (OSP) exoneration of former President John Dramani Mahama gives the National Democratic Congress (NDC) some mileage ahead of the December polls.
The OSP identified Mr Mahama as Government Official 1 (GO1) in the Airbus Scandal but cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, August 8, the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, also confirmed the brother of the former president, Samuel Mahama, as Intermediary 5.
Giving a brief overview of investigations carried out by his office, the OSP confirmed that Mr Mahama was identified as GO1 and Individual 1 by UK and US courts respectively but played no role in the acquisition.
Mr Ayariga told Selorm Adonoo on The Big Issue on Channel One TV that the NDC was excited and satisfied by the OSP’s findings.
He said the findings also gave the party leverage in its campaign as it sought to tell Ghanaians that, given the opportunity, it would do a better job at fighting corruption in the country.
“It is good that the OSP has gone through the investigation. It is good that they have concluded the matter. Naturally, we in the NDC will be happy because he (Mahama) is the flagbearer of our party. We are going into a crucial election in which corruption is one of the key issues in this electioneering campaign.
“We in the NDC have consistently accused Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government in which Bawumia was the vice president of multiple scandals that we suspect were leading with corruption, etc and we had this hanging over our head because there was also speculation over there about the airbus scandal.”
“On several occasions NPP communicators anytime they are discussing corruption of NPP also point to Airbus as their example of a scandal under the NDC in which they said John Dramani Mahama was also implicated. So to have the OSP come out at this crucial stage in the campaigning to publicly state that John Dramani Mahama was not in any way involved in any act of corruption I think that excites us.”
“We are happy, we are satisfied, and it gives us some mileage in our campaign as we seek to point out that we run a relatively cleaner government and if given the opportunity we will do a better job-fighting corruption,” he stated.
