Okudzeto Ablakwa for several months has been accusing the president of living a luxurious lifestyle at the direct expense of the Ghanaian taxpayer by resorting to chartering private jets instead of using the state’s owned presidential jet for his foreign travels.
In an interview on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia morning show of Wednesday, April 20, 2022, the North Tongu MP accused the president of failing to defend his conduct and resorting to playing hide-and-seek with him since he committed to exposing his profligacy.
“This is all about greater comfort, luxury. The president wants to be able to take a shower in the air when he is traveling just like the minister of defense said. He wants to have a master bedroom and a private cinema room. Look, all these things is for him to live like a Russian Oligarch, an Arabian King or a British aristocrat at the same time. But for a developing country, for a country with all of our challenges, is that something you should be doing?"
“That is why the president, since I started raising this has not been able to defend himself. And recently he is playing hide-and-seek trying to hide his sudden affinity and addiction to this obscene ultra-luxury travel,” he stated.
Samuel Ablakwa was speaking about his recent quest to rally Ghanaians against any decision by the government of Ghana to purchase the Mexican presidential jet, which is up for sale at an amount of $218 million.
Early this month, Okudzeto Ablakwa accused the president of adopting a “meet-me-there” approach in his use of private jets for his foreign travels.
According to him, the president on the back of his constant campaign against his use of luxurious private jets, left Ghana for a trip to the United States and the United Kingdom with a commercial airline.
He however noted that the president, upon his arrival in Washington had his favourite luxurious $18,000 an hour LX-DIO private aircraft waiting for him.
“Before the President landed at 6:40am at the Dulles International Airport in Washington on the 1st of April, the ubiquitous luxury LX-DIO had landed at the same airport the previous day at 12:27pm waiting for President Akufo-Addo.
“President Akufo-Addo couldn’t wait to fly his favourite US$18,000 an hour LX-DIO from Washington where he departed at 10:13am and arrived at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina at 11:22am — a flight time of 01:09. It is important to acknowledge that there were more than a dozen available commercial flights with business class tickets not exceeding $700 in value,” Okudzeto Ablakwa stated in a Facebook post.
In his recent post about the president’s foreign travels, the opposition MP said the Mexican presidential jet currently up for sale has every feature President Akufo-Addo seeks to satisfy his profligate taste.
He warned that the opposition minority caucus in parliament will vehemently oppose any plans by the government of Ghana to purchase the Mexican presidential jet.
