Pro political pressure group, FixingTheCountry Movement has been given Thursday, November 16, 2023, for its picketing at the frontage of the Office of former President John Dramani Mahama, its convenor, Ernest Owusu Bempah, has indicated.
He says the event which was initially scheduled for Thursday, October 12, 2023 couldn’t come off due to the “back and forth” they had with the police on concluding with the police.
Addressing the media Thursday, October 12, the group’s convenor noted that “Fixing the Country Movement is organising this public manifestation as a result of the nonchalant attitude being deployed by our investigative authorities on the Airbus corruption saga.”
Airbus SE, a global provider of civilian and military aircraft based in France, agreed to pay combined penalties of nearly $4billion to resolve foreign bribery charges with authorities in the United States, France and the United Kingdom arising out of the Company’s scheme to use third-party business partners to bribe government officials around the world.
According to admissions and court documents, beginning in at least 2008 and continuing until at least 2015, Airbus engaged in and facilitated a scheme to offer and pay bribes to decision makers and other influencers, including foreign officials, in order to obtain improper business advantages and win lucrative contracts in several countries including Ghana.
Mr. Owusu-Bempah in his address noted that descriptions made by the court regarding the aircraft that were to be sold to Ghana and the third parties involved in getting the bribes paid to officials in this country points at no less a person than a brother of the former President himself whom the authorities have described as Government Official 1.
“It turned out that Philip Middlemiss, a renowned British actor, Leanne Davis and John Mahama’s brother, Samuel Adam Mahama were the intermediaries between Airbus and former President Mahama, otherwise known as Government Official I as identified by the US and UK authorities.
Describing the Airbus SE corruption “the biggest corruption case ever”, Mr Owusu Bempah noted that payment of bribes were made and monies received by the top government official in Ghana but falsified documents to direction traction of receipt of such bribes elsewhere.
“Government Official 1” had such a reputation as a prolific bribe-collector that within three weeks of the election of the incoming Government, AND BEFORE IT WAS SWORN IN, Airbus reached agreement with brother of “Government Official 1,” described in the US version of Court documents as “Individual 1,” he quoted from the documents issued by the Serious Fraud Office of the UK and Department of Justice of the US.
After personally petitioning the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to expedite action on the matter as it indicated it has started investigation into, the Deputy Communications Director of the NPP says progress has delayed and wants action to be quickened on the biggest scandal ever to befall the country.
“It has been over a year since the Special Prosecutor announced the new phase of investigations into the matter.
“In the light of the above, we deemed it prudent and necessary to engage in public manifestation to bring attention to whoever it may concern to see to it that immediate action is taken on the Mahama/Airbus corruption affair.
“Respectfully, everyone who is privy to the core details of the series of court documents published by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the United States and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) of the United Kingdom cannot allege ignorance of the persons who have brought our nation into this international shame,” he indicated.
He continued that: “We want the Ghanaian justice system to open a thorough enquiry on the Airbus corruption because we strongly believe former President Mahama’s culpability in this stinking corruption case as established by admissions and supporting court documents from the US and UK can never be in doubt.
“In all honesty, Fixing the Country Movement holds the view that Mr Mahama has a lot of questions to answer and as such we want to pursue a public manifestation to bring attention to the issues that have been allow to die a natural dead by our investigative authorities.
“We believe in public accountability and want to reiterate the point that no one is above accountability.”
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