Economics professor, Kwaku Asare is demanding thorough investigations followed by prosecution of all those found culpable in the Airbus and missing excavators scandals.

Describing the developments as a “heightened abuse of office,” the legal practitioner said the issues “strike at the very core of our government and democracy.”

“Nothing short of airing and excavating all the facts followed by prompt prosecutions of all those involved will atone for the sin that these scandals have visited upon the people.”

His comments come after a UK court ruling cited Ghana among other countries to have been involved in fictitious dealings with aviation giant, Airbus.

The company is said to have either paid or attempted to pay bribes in exchange for contracts with a said “Government official 1” featuring heavily.

Airbus has since been fined some £3 billion by the UK court which said contrary to section 7 of the UK’s Bribery Act 2010, Airbus failed to prevent persons associated with it from “bribing others concerned with the purchase of a military transport aircraft by the Government of Ghana, where the said bribery was intended to obtain or retain business or advantage in the conduct of business.”

Whereas the identity of the said Government official 1 is not yet known, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has already presumed that it refers to former President John Mahama who is in a bid to return to power in January 2021.

President Akufo-Addo has however, referred the matter to the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu for investigation “to determine the complicity or otherwise of any Ghanaian government official, past or present, involved in the said scandal.”

The second issue Prof. Asare is demanding action on is the disappearance of some 500 excavators which were seized from illegal small-scale miners.

Despite the police confirming the arrest of six persons, including a suspended Deputy Regional Chairperson of the NPP, Ekow Ewusi, critics say a lot more has to be done.

Ekow Ewusi [Right]

The opposition NDC has already accused the Environment Minister, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng of complicity in the disappearance of the excavators, despite the NPP rejecting such claims.

The NDC says, other high ranking officials of the NPP, including its General Secretary, John Boadu are tainted in the missing excavators saga.

NDC National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi described the matter as a confirmation of the rot in the Akufo-Addo-led administration.

But demanding swift action, Kwaku Azar said the nation cannot “trivialize or dance around the severity of the criminality that has now come to be known as [missing] Excavators saga.”