Airbus Scandal: Akpaloo Unmasks Gov’t Official One!

The Founder of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Kofi Akpaloo says former President John Dramani Mahama cannot escape blame in the raging Airbus scandal.

He is sure that the identity of the much talked-about Government Official One is the former president.

According to the 2020 Presidential Aspirant of the Party Mr. Mahama must be made to face the law because the description of the said Government Official One adequately fits him.

Although no name has been ascribed to the said government official, both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have over the past weeks been on each other’s throat as to who the official really is.

The governing NPP believes the person referred to as Government Official One is Mr. Mahama while former Deputy Education Minister under the Mahama administration, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has denied the former president’s involvement in the saga.

Addressing a news conference in Accra, the LPG leader was emphatic that it is laughable for anyone to look beyond Mr. Mahama in search of the said Government official one.

“We suspect that the government official one is him, that’s our understanding, that’s our believe that he’s the one we are talking about” Mr. Akpaloo calmed, adding “Mr. Mahama must come out to tell us who government official one is; we don’t know and I believe those of us here too don’t know”.

The LPG Founder continued: “Because he was in charge, he was responsible, he has to come out boldly to address the country about who that government official one is; he has been silent and we count allow it to go, we are demanding answers from him to tell us what actually happed, we want to know.”

He insists Ghana’s image has been badly dented by the scandal as a country associated with bribery and corruption.

Mr. Akpaloo stated that the citizens want to know how much the country spent in purchasing those aircrafts in 2012 and how much the country has lost in the scandal as well as who the beneficiaries of the deal are.

Commenting on the series of demonstrations against the compilation of a new voters register, the LPG 2020 presidential aspirant said the demonstrations are an exercise to burn some body fats by the organizers.

Ghana is one of five countries in which the European aviation giant, Airbus, paid or attempted to pay millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for contracts, leading a court in Britain to slap a fine of £3 billion on the company.

In court documents and hearings, Airbus admitted five counts of failing to prevent bribery, using a network of secret agents to pay large-scale backhanders to officials in foreign countries, including Ghana, to land high-value contracts.

The scheme was run by a unit at Airbus’ French headquarters, which its one-time chief executive, Tom Enders, reportedly called “bullshit castle”.