The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu has dared former president John Dramani Mahama to avail himself for interrogation on the Airbus SE Scandal.
In a press release issued by the Office of the Special Prosecutor, he chided Mr. Mahama for failing to have a detailed understanding on the issues of security and intelligence.
“The long public service of the Special Prosecutor spanning various aspects of security and intelligence from the period of 1982 to 7th January 2001 and July 2009 to January 2012 makes him more experienced in determining when it is not conducive to the national security interest to foolhardily take certain law and order actions. The Special Prosecutor owes that exercise of discretion to his vast experience over the years, his responsibility to maintain national stability and his conscience as a patriotic anti-corruption crusading Ghanaian.”
Mr. Amidu further asserted that the NDC flagbearer cannot “pick and choose from the Agyapa Royalties Limited report”.
“There is no question of stupidity or cowardice about it. Any person aspiring to be President of Ghana for a second term who does not know that a cardinal principle in security and intelligence is that ‘caution is the better part of valor’ was not and is not worth the vote”.
Defending his stance on John Mahama’s culpability in the Airbus scandal, Martin Amidu further challenged him to demonstrate wisdom and valor in counteracting the “Government Official 1” tag.
“Your Excellency, the wise and the brave former President John Dramani Mahama, man-up, wise-up, and be brave enough to come with two lawyers of your own choice to be cautioned and interrogated by this Office to demonstrate your valor and wisdom as not being elected Government Official 1 and also as not being the first guarantor to Samuel Adam Mahama’s passport application”.
Reacting to the Agyapa report, John Dramani Mahama during his Accra Tour at the University of Ghana said the development was unfortunate adding that, “nobody asked you about Airbus.”
“If you [Martin Amidu] were man enough, present Agyapa and do a report on Airbus separately. And I will come as a man and answer you on Airbus. If you think I’m indicted in Airbus, accuse me directly.
“But because he is a coward and he knew they were going to discuss Agyapa, he put a paragraph on Airbus to equalize the discussion. I mean what stupidity is this?”
Also speaking in an interview on an Accra based radio station, John Mahama noted that, Mr. Amidu just wanted to “equalize”.
“I’m surprised. It’s obvious why that paragraph was put in there. I mean this damning report was coming out and I’m disappointed at Martin Amidu to have put that paragraph there just to equalize and bring up Airbus as if it was a major issue.
“I’ve had my say on the Airbus issue. No financial benefit accrued to me, not a single dollar. The point even is, there is no basis. We are talking about deferred prosecution agreement in which nobody’s name was mentioned and yet there’s been inference that it must be this person, it must be that person. Legally, he doesn’t even have any basis to even prosecute me. On what basis, on what document is he prosecuting me? Who has he spoken to, what investigation has he conducted? He should come out and tell us”.
