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Contrary to claims made by North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the presidency explained that President Akufo-Addo did not fly on a private jet to Rwanda; instead, he used a commercial flight to Paris before continuing on to Brussels.
The president also took the train from Paris to Belgium to conduct official business, including appearing as one of the main speakers at the European Development Days conference.
The statement continued, “However, due to strike action by the aviation industry employees in Belgium forcing the cancellation of commercial flights, the president resorted to using a private jet from Brussels to Kigali.”
According to Mr. Arhin, the president’s private plane was chartered in order for him to get to Kigali in time to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the groundbreaking ceremony for the Pan-African Vaccine Manufacturing project.
“A direct commercial flight from Brussels to Kigali was not a possibility because the Presidency had received advance notice of the strike action before the President’s journey to Brussels.”
Therefore, it was decided to charter a flight for President Akufo-Addo and his entourage to travel on Wednesday, June 22, for eight hours and forty minutes (8 h 40 min) from Brussels to Kigali.
According to the statement, “this was done to ensure that the President made it to Kigali on time to participate in the ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday, June 23, for the start of work on the Pan-African Vaccine Manufacturing project, involving Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal, and BioNTech SE, the German biotechnology company, as well as attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which is also taking place in Kigali, Rwanda.”
President Akufo-Addo had returned to his “grossly insensitive and reckless methods of profligate traveling in ultra-luxurious charters,” according to Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa’s tweet on his social media account on June 23.
He claimed that the president selected the most expensive and high-end aircraft in the K5 Aviation fleet, registered as D-Alex.
The jet, which was chartered for the president’s most recent international trip at a rate of €20,000 per hour, reportedly cost the Ghanaian public about GH4 million.
“The Ghanaian tax payer is shelling out €20,000 per hour for this luxury monster.” We can confirm a conservative bill of €480,000.00 for President Akufo-Addo’s trip to Belgium and Rwanda, which will begin on Sunday, June 19, 2022, in order to attend the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda, and the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium.
According to Ablakwa’s Facebook post, “The 480,000 euros, which is generated from 21 hours of total travel time plus additional industry expenses, works out to almost 4.1 million Ghana Cedis at the current currency rate.”