The President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, recently traveled to two other countries, and the North Tongu Member of Parliament has identified a new flight that was hired by him.
On Sunday, June 19, President Akufo-Addo departed from Ghana for Belgium and later Rwanda in order to attend the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations and the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum, respectively.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a member of parliament, has been keeping an eye on his mode of transportation from Ghana for some time.
But the President, in his last two travels, had resorted to commercial flights after concerns were raised about the expenses incurred in using chartered flights in the face of economic hardship.
However, Mr Ablakwa says President Akufo-Addo has returned to “his grossly insensitive and reckless ways of profligate traveling in ultra-luxurious charters”.
Writing on his Facebook page, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmaker said the new flight is even more expensive.
“This luxury monster is costing the Ghanaian taxpayer €20,000 an hour,” he wrote, summing up the total amount for the hours to spend aproad before the president returns home to €480,000.00.
“The 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate.”
The Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament said the new jet is operated by a private German firm.
“K5-Aviation has been licensed to operate their luxury fleet by the German National Aviation Authority (Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, LBA) since June 2011,” he indicated, later adding:”Being a more expensive luxury carrier, its oligarchic features include: Master bedroom with double bed and connecting bathroom with shower; 2 additional bedrooms; 3 washrooms; Master bathroom with walk-in shower; Air Humidification system; Airshow and 5 external cameras; Gogo 2Ku high speed Wi-Fi, up to 70 Mbit/sec for streaming and video calls (charged extra); Video on demand and DVD including a 55” screen; music streaming; PlayStation; external cameras with tailfin view; airshow and a satellite phone.”
The NDCP MP, however, commended First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo for flying to Kigali in Ghana’s Presidential Jet.
“I must, however, commend First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo for honourably flying to Kigali aboard Ghana’s Presidential Jet which took her some 4hours and 49minutes. Her confidence in Ghana’s Presidential Jet is refreshing and deeply admirable. Ghanaians are exceedingly proud of her.
“It must definitely take a rare kind of insulting insensitivity for President Akufo-Addo to be this wasteful and obstinate at a time Ghanaians are facing a cost of living crisis.”
