Mahama responds to ‘Government Official 1’ tag

Former President John Dramani Mahama has removed the mystery surrounding the Government Official 1 (GO1) or Individual 1 tag in the explosive Airbus SE bribery scandal.

He is making what looks like a tacit admission that he is indeed GO1 or Individual 1 as referred to in separate investigations in the United Kingdom and the United States, as having received at least five million Euros in kickbacks from Airbus officials.

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Although he appears to confirm the GO1 or Individual 1 tag, he has also denied vehemently that he took bribes during the transaction to procure aircraft for the Ghana Armed Forces during his tenure in spite of mounting forensic evidence against him.

It has taken the former President about four months to break his silence on the scandal.

Vehement Denial

He told ‘Daily Graphic’ last week that he did not benefit a dime in the transaction as being alleged and added that he was only motivated to see the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) retooled.

“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,” he claimed.

According to the ex-President, who is staging a comeback after being trounced at the polls in 2016 as the incumbent, “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.”

“I am happy that the said aircraft have become the backbone of the Ghana Air Force and its operations. They used for troop transportation, logistics deployment and medical evacuation (Sic),” he said.

Main Scandal

The global aeroplane manufacturing giant, Airbus SE, in February 2020, was fined a record three billion pounds in penalties by the UK Crown Court of Southwark, London, after admitting it had paid huge bribes on an “endemic” basis to land contracts in 20 countries, including Ghana and in the Unites States. The damages against Airbus SE with Case No.: 1:20-cr-00021 (TFH) was being assessed after the historic judgement at the District of Columbia Court.

UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), in documents sent to court, quoted at least five million Euros as payment of kickbacks to a top Ghanaian official through an intermediary who is a close relative of “a high-ranking elected Ghanaian government official” during the Mahama administration.

Clear View

In the UK Crown Court documents, the SFO named the elected NDC guru as ‘GO1’ and that powerful official was the same person being referred to as ‘Individual 1’ in the US court documents.

In the same vein ‘Intermediary 5’ (I5) in the UK court documents, who has been described as the brother of the powerful elected official in Ghana, was the same person being referred to as ‘Consultant 4’ by the US authorities.

Per the two documents, GO1 or Individual 1 was not just content with having I5 (his brother) handle his alleged bribe-collection arrangements.

According to the documents, GO1 was in “direct repeated contact with senior Airbus SE executives.”

Source: Daily Guide Networ