President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo flew to the United States on the evening of March 28, 2023; Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has disclosed.
Sharing flight maps of the 13-hour trip, Ablakwa stated that the journey was aboard the presidential jet, labeling it the longest journey of the Dassault Falcon 900EX in ‘four years.’
Dwelling on the flight time, the lawmaker dismissed previous claims by the government that the jet was not fit for long haul flights hence Akufo-Addo’s use of ultra-luxury chartered flights over the past two years.
“Ghana’s Presidential Jet has just made its longest journey in more than 4 years after it ferried President Akufo-Addo to the United States landing at the Teterboro Airport in New Jersey yesterday at 8:21am US time.
“Requiring only one brief refueling stop at Santa Maria following an 11:33pm departure from Accra on Monday March 27, 2023; this 13-hour trip has finally exposed and totally silenced all government propagandists who claimed the Dassault Falcon 900EX was not a long range aircraft fit for flying to the Americas, and therefore President Akufo-Addo was justified in wasting over a GHS100million of our taxes on €20,000-an-hour chartered luxury jets for his earlier sybaritic travels to Europe and the United States of America,” his post read in part.
The jet returned to Ghana this year after it had undergone six months of revamping and retrofiting in Paris, France.
Ablakwa has since 2021 waged a sustained campaign against Akufo-Addo’s use of chartered flights for overseas trips, insisting that the presidential jet was in pristine condition.
He reiterated that point in his latest post stating: “It seems to me that after 2 years of a sustained, spirited, selfless, courageous and patriotic campaign to get President Akufo-Addo to stop his countless profligate luxury charters and return to using Ghana’s coveted Presidential Jet, the Ghanaian people can now breathe a great sigh of relief because our collective democratic pressure has yielded the conduct we demanded.”
Read his full post below:
Ghana’s Presidential Jet has just made its longest journey in more than 4 years after it ferried President Akufo-Addo to the United States landing at the Teterboro Airport in New Jersey yesterday at 8:21am US time.
Requiring only one brief refueling stop at Santa Maria following an 11:33pm departure from Accra on Monday March 27, 2023; this 13-hour trip has finally exposed and totally silenced all government propagandists who claimed the Dassault Falcon 900EX was not a long range aircraft fit for flying to the Americas, and therefore President Akufo-Addo was justified in wasting over a GHS100million of our taxes on €20,000-an-hour chartered luxury jets for his earlier sybaritic travels to Europe and the United States of America.
It seems to me that after 2 years of a sustained, spirited, selfless, courageous and patriotic campaign to get President Akufo-Addo to stop his countless profligate luxury charters and return to using Ghana’s coveted Presidential Jet, the Ghanaian people can now breathe a great sigh of relief because our collective democratic pressure has yielded the conduct we demanded.
Regardless of Ghana’s current economic tribulations, and judging from the President’s overall track record as typified by his reckless refusal to reduce the size of his bloated government despite the economic meltdown and strong appeals from multiple quarters; I am absolutely convinced that without the revolt and palpable revulsion of the masses in reaction to this ‘sky bath scandal,’ he would have obstinately continued with his obscene extravagance at the expense of suffocating taxpayers as he was initially determined to do for more than 24 months.
People Power Always Wins!
We saved the battered public purse. This is Ghana’s Victory and not a personal triumph.
For God and Country. Ghana First.
Source: ghanaweb.com
