North Tongu MP publishing details of President’s chartered travels
Ablakwa, others pushing for Bill on Presidential travels
Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has published what he alleges to be details of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s ultra-luxury-chartered jet travels in the last 13 months.
The lawmaker’s computation pointed to the state having paid the equivalent of GH¢34million to ensure the President enjoyed the service of high-end charters for trips abroad.
Ablakwa who has been at the forefront of tracking Akufo-Addo’s use of charters as against using the functional presidential jet stated in a social media post that the government has serially failed to challenge all the details that he has published.
“Since May last year when in the true spirit of Parliamentary oversight and an onerous duty to check reckless dissipation of scarce taxpayer funds, I began to track and publish all of President Akufo-Addo’s profligate travels by ultra-luxury chartered jets, not a single exposé has been challenged or impeached till this day,” his June 25, 2022 post read in part.
For each of the 13 travels, he published among others, the type of aircraft and operator involved, the route, the travel date and the cost involved – usually quoted in dollars or euros.
“A conservatively estimated total cost of Akufo-Addo’s obscenely lavish chartered trips over the last 13-months which has been paid for by the suffering Ghanaian taxpayer works out to a staggering GHS34million.
“This GHS34million could have been saved because Ghana possesses a functioning Presidential Jet in great condition,” his post added.
He also announced that together with other MPs, a draft Private Member’s Bill to regulate Presidential Travels will be sent to Parliament.
“I hope we shall be successful so that no future president regardless of which political party platform brought them to power would have the unfettered discretion to subject national coffers to such an unconscionable assault. May God help us,” his post concluded.
Highlights of Akufo-Addo's private jet trips between May 2021 - June 2022
Publication: 27th May, 2021
Aircraft: ACJ320Neo operated by Aviation Acropolis
Destination: Akufo-Addo’s trip from Accra-Paris-Johannesburg-Accra
Travel Date: 16th to 25th May, 2021
Cost: £345,000
Publication: 31st August, 2021
Aircraft: Boeing 737- 900ER BBJ3 (LX-DIO) operated by Global Jet Luxembourg
Destination: Akufo-Addo’s trip to UK and Germany
Travel Date: 27th July, 2021
Cost: $574,000
Publication: 21st September, 2021
Aircraft: Boeing 737- 900ER BBJ3 (LX-DIO) operated by Global Jet Luxembourg
Destination: Akufo-Addo’s trip from Accra via The Azores-Houston-New York-Accra
Travel Date: 17th September, 2021
Cost: $616,000
Publication: 12th October, 2021
Aircraft: Boeing 737- 900ER BBJ3 (LX-DIO) operated by Global Jet Luxembourg
Destination: Akufo-Addo’s trip from Accra- Belgrade-Accra
Travel Date: 10th October, 2021
Cost: $588,000
Publication: 17th November, 2021
Aircraft: Boeing 737- 900ER BBJ3 (LX-DIO) operated by Global Jet Luxembourg
Destination: Akufo-Addo’s trip to France
Travel Date: 13th November, 2021
Cost: $314,000
Publication: 11th February, 2022
Aircraft: Boeing 737- 900ER BBJ3 (LX-DIO) operated by Global Jet Luxembourg
Destination: Akufo-Addo’s trip from Ghana- France- Guyana- Germany- France- Belgium- UK- Ghana
Travel Date: 10th to 20th February, 2022
Cost: $776,000
Publication: 3rd April 2022 (“meet-me-there” edition)
Aircraft: Boeing 737- 900ER BBJ3 (LX-DIO) operated by Global Jet Luxembourg
Destination: Akufo-Addo’s trip from Washington- North Carolina-London
Date: 1st April, 2022
Cost: $465,000
Publication: 25th June 2022
Flight: ACJ319 (D-Alex) operated by K5-Aviation
Destination: Akufo-Addo’s trip from Belgium-Rwanda
Date: 22nd June, 2022
Cost: €480,000
Ablakwa has been monitoring presidential travels on chartered jets since 2021