Airbus Probe Unnecessary, As UK-SFO closes investigations – Martin Amidu

Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu says there is no point the Government of Ghana pursuing the Airbus scandal since the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office has closed the investigations.

Mr Amudu who was former Minister of Justice and Attorney General in his latest epistle on the matter noted that, “In 2021, the UK Fraud Office quietly closed its investigation in individuals associated with the European aircraft manufacturer, Airbus”.

According to the outspoken legal luminary, the closure finalized a long- running investigation into fraud, bribery and corruption allegations across the civil and military aviation businesses at Airbus.

He explained that, the closure of the UK investigations was that the four British suspects of Ghana’s Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) request were persons in respect of whom the UK-SFO had not found any reason to charge for any offences under their Airbus SE investigations.

According to the former Attorney General,it was going to be almost impossible to get the UK Government to provide any MLA in investigations it had closed in respect of its own nationals.

What Martin Amidu did not understand was why his successor, the current Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyabeng has chosen to resurrect a case at the time he left office in 2020 had been closed because of lack of evidence and cooperation on the part of the UK Government as well as the Ghanaian officials.

He said instead of Kissi Agyabeng whom he described in his article as ‘Agyapa’ Special Prosecutor
to follow-up with Agyapa Royalties deal as he promised during his vetting he was wasting state resources on the needless Airbus scandal.

He discounted claim by Kissi Agyabeng that he started engagements with the authorities in the UK and the United States of America on the Airbus issue.

According to him, he was the one who started the processes that led to the issuance of arrest warrants for the persons implicated.

“The true facts are that I made a request for MLA through the Attorney General (the Ghana Central Authority) to the central authorities of the United Kingdom and the United States of America before conducting an independent investigation which necessitated charges and the issuance of arrest warrants for four UK nationals for whom I caused the INTERPOL Red Notices to be issued”, he said in his epistle.

Source: Today.com.gh/Yaw Takyi