President Akufo-Addo exchanging pleasantries with Burkinabe officials
• President Akufo-Addo has travelled to Burkina Faso to mourn with the country over terrorist attack on the country
• The President assured them of the support of Ghana and ECOWAS
• He travelled in the presidential plane
In his first foreign trip after the controversy over the hiring of a luxurious jet to France, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo used the presidential aircraft known as the Falcon.
President Akufo-Addo left Ghana today, June 9, 2021, to the Burkina Faso to commiserate with his colleague president Christian Kabore and the country following the last Saturday’s terrorist attack which led to the killing of 160 people.
The ECOWAS chairman is reported to have assured the people of Burkina Faso of the commitment by the organization to deal with terrorism in the sub-region.
President Akufo-Addo came under attack recently from the Member of Parliament for North Tongu for supposedly flying a $15,000 per hour aircraft to France and South Africa.
“Per Flightradar24, the G-KELT aircraft left Accra with the President to Paris on the 16th of May — a 6 and half hour duration. Airlifted the President from Paris to Johannesburg for 11 hours on the 23rd of May.
“Then Johannesburg to Accra on May 25, was a five and half hour flight. This gives us accumulated flight travel of 23 hours, so at £15,000 an hour, it thus cost us a colossal £345,000. At the current exchange, that is a staggering ¢2,828,432.80.”
According to him, “President Akufo-Addo [who] has been a leading voice for debt forgiveness in the international arena has been imposing additional regressive taxes back home, with the justification that the economy isn’t in a good shape.”
But Nana Akomea, a member of the governing New Patriotic Party explained that the presidential jet is unfit for long trips.
“The claim that President Akufo-Addo has decided not to use the presidential jet is not true. It is not president Akufo-Addo’s decision. In fact, what has been recommended since 2018 October where they almost had a crash in America…
“… the reports that came out from the experts in the military and so on was that they shouldn’t use that jet for long distance travel and for more than 5 hours and ordered that either the president charters or we buy a new aircraft,” Nana Akomea said.
He noted “He (President Akufo-Addo) uses the jet in Ghana for his local travel and for his West Africa travel,” he said Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana program.