Ablakwa salutes Rebecca Akufo-Addo for flying on presidential jet to Rwanda

Rebecca Akufo-Addo in Rwanda for CHOGM 2022

Akufo-Addo accused of hiring ultra-luxurious jet for Belgium, Rwanda trips

Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has praised First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, for being prudent with public resources.

Th Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee stated in a June 23 social media post that he was impressed with the First Lady’s decision to use the presidential jet for her trip to Rwanda.

“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,” his post read in part.

The First Lady is currently in Rwanda attending an international summit. She arrived during the day on June 22 and was joined by the President who flew in with his delegation later that evening aboard an ultra-luxurious private jet.

In the same post, Ablakwa alleged that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had reverted to the use of ultra-luxurious charters for trips abroad.

He accused the President of insensitivity, recklessness and undue profligacy on his latest trip after pointing out that he had recently opted to fly commercial to the United Kingdom and United States.

According to Ablakwa, Akufo-Addo chartered an ultra-luxurious private jet for two recent trips, to Belgium and Rwanda; which trips are costing the Ghanaian taxpayer €480,000, equivalent to 4.1 million Ghana Cedis.

“Probably thinking he will escape our unimpeachable surveillance if he switched companies, President Akufo-Addo on this occasion decided to abandon his favourite LX-DIO operated by Global Jet Luxembourg and opted for German based private jet operator — K5-Aviation.

“As usual, President Akufo-Addo ordered their top-of-the-range and most expensive aircraft in their collection — the Airbus ACJ319. It is registered D-Alex,” his post read in part.

Touching on the cost component of the trip, Ablakwa noted that the taxpayer was paying €20,000 per hour for the service. The total flight time of some 21 hours he added, came up to €480,000.

“This luxury monster is costing the Ghanaian taxpayer €20,000 an hour.

“For President Akufo-Addo’s current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of €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,” his post stressed.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo arrived in the Rwandan capital, Kigali in the evening of Wednesday, June 22, 2022 to attend the ongoing Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM 2022.

He arrived from Brussels where he attended a European Union summit.

Earlier the same day, postings on Rwandan state media portals showed the arrival of First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo who used a Ghana AirForce jet for the trip.

Ablakwa has been religiously tracking the president’s travels which he described as ultra-luxurious disclosing that he mostly used chartered luxury jets that cost the tax payer millions of cedis.