The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusaugu, John Jinapor says former President John Dramani Mahama was right in describing Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu’s naming of him as “stupidity.”
Speaking to a group of students of the University of Ghana on Wednesday, Mahama who’s the flagbearer of the NDC slammed the Special Prosecutor for identifying him as Government Official 1 in the Airbus bribery scandal.
Amidu mentioned Mahama in his corruption risk assessment report on the Agyapa Royalties deal. “This Office has established the identity of elected Government official 1 to be former President John Dramani Mahama whose brother of the full blood is Samuel Adam Foster also known as Samuel Adam Mahama,” the special prosecutor revealed.
According to Amidu, the only reason Mahama had not been invited for interrogation “is the fact that he got himself an insurance as the Presidential candidate of the other largest political party in Ghana.”
Commenting on the reaction of the former President on Accra-based Citi FM, Jinapor who’s also a member of the Finance Committee of Parliament believed Mahama was right to be irked.
“I listened to him [Mahama], and all he said was that what happened in terms of the report was nonsense and it was the act and the right words to describe the report and that was all that it was,” Jinapor said.
He added “He [John Mahama] was referring to the action and not the man himself. The point is that what Martin Amidu did is not what he was supposed to. He was meant to do a corruption risk assessment of the Agyapa deal.
“If he wants to do something about Airbus, let him do that separately, talk to those involved and do what is right and proper. But if you mix up the two, you make nonsense of what you are doing and that is a fact.”
Denial
Mahama is on record to have denied any hand in the Airbus deal while serving as president of Ghana.
Back in June, he broke his silence on the issue, arguing that due diligence was followed in the purchase of the two aircraft for the Ghana Armed Forces.
“Let me state without any equivocation that no financial benefit accrued to me. Neither was there any form of inducement in the purchase of the aircraft. My singular motivation was to equip and retool the Ghana Armed Forces in a manner that would make the discharge of their national and international roles efficient and less burdensome and for all the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform make, they do not deserve less,” the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress told the state-owned Daily Graphic.
