Mabey and Johnson: UK SFO has ulterior motives- Ametor Quame

A sympathizer of the ruling National Democratic Congress, and Features Editor of the Palaver Newspaper, Ametor Quame has impugned the integrity of the Serious Fraud Office in UK in the bribery scandal that has rocked the country. On Friday, September 24, 2009, the Southwark Crown Court in London presided over by Geoffrey Rivlin, found officials of Mabey and Johnson, a UK construction firm guilty of corrupting government officials in African countries, including Ghana during the late 1980’s to the 90s, in contravention of UK laws. Some government officials under the Rawlings-led government were cited for collecting huge sums of money in bribes in order to facilitate the award of contracts to Mabey & Johnson. This Ametor Quame insists is part of a grand scheme by the UK investigative department to smear African leaders and label them as corrupt officials. “Without any hesitation I can tell you the SFO UK has an ulterior motive to smear as many people in this government as possible…it is for the British SFO to establish that Africans including their head of state are corrupt. That none of them will be a person that can stand up and be counted.” The NDC activist argued on Joy FM’s news analysis programme News File on Saturday. He was even more embittered over the mentioning of the former first Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and the former Finance Minister, Kwame Peprah, when no solid allegations of bribery were leveled against them. He argued the case in contention was a criminal offence, and that by publicly mentioning their names imputes motives of criminality to them. But another panelist on the show Kweku Baako in a rebuttal said the mentioning of those names did not in itself implicate anybody. He argued such persons due to their influence and power may only have acted as facilitators adding, after thorough investigations the truth might be out. Malik Baako further ridiculed the NDC statement which sought to exonerate the party of the alleged bribery scandal. Describing it as "comic relief" the avowed critic of the NDC said he nearly collapsed after reading the content of the statement. He called for a bipartisan approach in dealing with issues of bribery by multinationals that have conducted business in the country, adding attempts to cover up will be counter productive. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana