Embrace Election Results with same Acceptance Given to OSP; NPP to NDC

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged the country’s largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to give same level of acceptance with which they received the investigations of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to the Electoral Commission (EC) after the December polls.

The General Secretary of the governing party, Justin Kodua Frimpong in a brief post on his Facebook page on Thursday evening said they are happy their opponents have confidence in the OSP which is also a state agency.

“We are happy to know that the NDC recognizes state institutions as functional and credible.”

In the same spirit, they hope the NDC will embrace the declaration of the results of the upcoming elections.

“May we see this same level of acceptance when another state institution declares the results after Dec 7. May God bless our home land Ghana and make her great and strong.”

Meanwhile, he noted that an official reaction of the party will be published after they scrutinize the report of the OSP.

“The party is however studying the report by the OSP and will make a statement in due course.”

OSP Report
The OSP after its probe into the allegations of bribery that implicated former President John dramani Mahama and his brother, Samuel Foster Adam in the purchase of three military aircrafts from Airbus SE from 2011 to 2015, exonerated them of all accusations.

According to Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, though Airbus’ circumvented payment to Foster and his associates- for their intermediary services in the purchase of three aircrafts by Ghana- were wrong, it does not amount to payment of bribe in the reckoning of Ghanaian law.

Additionally, there exists no evidence that Samuel Mahama and his associates acted as conduits of bribery between the employees of Airbus and former President Mahama, neither did they receive payments from Airbus with the intention of bribing the former President or any other public official.

It also found no evidence that Mahama was paid bribes by Samuel in respect of military transport aircraft from Airbus nor did any evidence point to the claims that the Former President was induced to favour Airbus in respect of the purchase.

Mr Agyebeng believes there was nothing remarkable about the transaction and only gained the wide attention of the UK and US authorities due to the blood relations between the former President and Samuel- a member of the intermediary.

Opposition Reaction
The Office of John Dramani Mahama welcomed the report, noting it affirmed the integrity, honesty and transparency within whose confines Mr Mahama led the country.

“The Office of HE John Dramani Mahama wishes to express profound satisfaction with the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s (OSP) ruling, which exonerates the former president from allegations in the Airbus ‘scandal’.”

According to the Office, the ruling New Patriotic Party unsuccessfully sought to score political points from this scandal.

“The facts of this case have been available, and the public has observed the machinations behind the scenes— including the disingenuous attempts by the current ruling government to exploit this matter for political gain.

“Despite the UK’s Serious Fraud Office clarifying that Mahama’s brother and others involved had no case to answer, the ruling government persisted in framing this scandal as a tool for political advantage. We also note the OSP’s revelation that President Nana Akufo-Addo personally requested that President Mahama be investigated. This casts an even darker shadow on the motives behind the initial accusations, which were planted to tarnish the reputation of an innocent man.”