The recent exoneration of former President John Dramani Mahama by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has been welcomed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), according to Mahama Ayariga, the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central.
In the high-profile Airbus scandal, the OSP identified Mahama as “Government Official 1” (GO1) but cleared him of any wrongdoing. This finding, announced by Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng during a press conference in Accra on Thursday, August 8, also confirmed that the former president’s brother, Samuel Mahama, was involved as “Intermediary 5.”
Providing a summary of the investigation, the OSP noted that while UK and US courts had identified Mahama as GO1 and Individual 1, he had no involvement in the controversial acquisition process.
In an interview on The Big Issue on Channel One TV, Ayariga expressed the NDC’s satisfaction with the OSP’s findings, viewing them as a positive development for the party as it gears up for the December elections. He believes the exoneration gives the NDC leverage in their campaign, reinforcing their commitment to combating corruption more effectively if given the mandate by Ghanaians.
“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.
