Ghana’s deputy attorney general says four top officials of the previous government will be tried Tuesday for graft over their alleged roles in the formation and management of Ghana International Airlines.
Ebo Burton Oduro denied suggestions that demands by a section of the population might have influenced the attorney general’s office to prosecute the officials from President John Kufuor’s administration.
“There are a number of charges -- causing financial loss to the state, stealing and so on and so forth. There are various categories of causing financial loss, various categories of stealing, deceit of a public officer and so on and so forth,” he said.
The four top officials include chief of staff Kwadwo Mpiani, Richard Anane, former roads and transport minister, Anthony Akoto Osei, former finance minster and Sammy Crabbe, former vice president of the Ghana International Airlines.
Some of the charges they face include fraud, misrepresentation, stealing, and willfully causing financial loss to the state.
Sammy Crabbe, former vice president of the Ghana International Airlines is quoted by the local media as saying he was not surprised about the charges against him and other former top officials.
“I am not surprised at all that at the end of the day, they have wasted everybody’s time and we are where we are today,” Crabbe said. “They should have just gone ahead and charged us, instead of waiting for the Commission on Human Rights and Administration Justice to conduct investigations into the matter before now trying to charge us.”
Critics said the charges against the former top government officials are politically motivated.
But deputy attorney general Burton Oduro said thorough investigation led to the charges against the former officials.
“For example if you should present a memo to cabinet that the solution to the problem being faced by the former Ghana Airways is to get some foreign input by way of financial input and then administrative expertise and therefore these companies are in a position to help solve the problem. And it turns out that indeed as at the time you were making the presentation to the cabinet, these companies did not even exist. How can you talk about (companies that did not exist) in Ghana or in America?” Oduro asked.
He expressed confidence in the success of the graft charges against the former government officials.
