Reports coming in suggest that the NDC’s Flagbearer for the 2020 general elections and former President, John Dramani Mahama instructed the minority in parliament to boycott the President Akufo-Addo’s State of the Nation Address.
Sources close to the minority leadership told our reporter the instruction to boycott the SONA came from above but refused to disclosed the identity of the person. Further checks revealed that the order came from the office of the former president, John Mahama. The reason for the boycott is still not clear but the source said it may be linked to government handling of the Airbus bribery saga.
Background
On January 31, 2020, Ghana was named as one of five countries that 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 addition to Ghana, the company allegedly paid bribes to officials in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Taiwan within the same period.
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office, however, in its statement of fact did not name the Ghanaian officials because investigations were still ongoing.
This led to President Akufo-Addo tasking the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the scandal.
While the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) believes an investigation into the issue is unnecessary because no bribe was taken, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has already come out to name former President John Dramani Mahama as government official 1, an elected public figure who dominated the report.
