His response to an urgent question filed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa will be after he presents the Mid-Year Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana and Supplementary Estimate for the 2021 Financial Year.
The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in a Facebook post last month alleged that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo spent a whopping Ghc2.8m on a private jet on his recent trips to France and Johannesburg.
The ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament alleged that the president decided to rent an aircraft that cost the Ghanaian taxpayer £15,000 an hour.
He further added that the President left Accra for Paris on the 16th of May and then from Paris to Johannesburg and back to Accra on the 25th of May accumulating a total of 23 hours amounting to a colossal £345,000. At the current exchange, the amount totals GHS2,828,432.80.
The Minister of Defence was in Parliament to justify the hiring of a £15,000 per hour private jet for the trip.
Mr. Nitiwul, the ultimate factor in deciding the type of aircraft the President uses for his trips is “safety”.
He concluded that no President can even take his shower on the aircraft when the need arises.
“This aircraft will carry a load of 11 persons minus the crew. When this aircraft is travelling to the eastern part of the USA or Asia, it will not load a crew of more than eight plus the luggage. So it depends on where it is going. Secondly, I have also said the aircraft has to do refuelling stops, and also in this COVID-19, when you are travelling to multiple destinations like the president’s recent travel, the Falcon couldn’t have been taken because he would have had to do technical stops which are not desirable, and when he is travelling with more than 20 people like he has been doing for business trips that brought huge sums of money for this country, he will need more than just a Falcon, otherwise, the others would have to go a day ahead before the president to prepare themselves", he said.