Ignore the lies of Okudzeto Ablakwa; Akufo-Addo didn’t travel to Belgium with a private jet – Presidency

The Director of Communications at the Office of the President, Eugene Arhin, has debunked the claims made by the NDC Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, that His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo travelled to Belgium for the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels with a private jet.

In a post made on his Facebook timeline, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa claimed, amongst other wild allegations, that an amount of €480,000.00 has been used to hire the said private jet for the comfort of President Akufo-Addo to Brussels. He claimed that an Airbus ACJ319, registered D-Alex was used.

The Presidency has responded to these claims of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, giving detailed information about the entire trip and emphasizing that the assertions are far from the truth.

“The President travelled to Belgium onboard an Air France Commercial Flight (AF0584), which departed Accra on Sunday at 7:20pm, made a stop-over in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and then continued to Paris.”

The presidency also said all of President Akufo-Addo’s 12-member delegation travelled on commercial flights.

Upon arrival in Paris, the Presidency said President Akufo-Addo and his delegation travelled via train to Brussels to attend the European Development Days event, where, on Tuesday, 21st June 2022, he was a keynote speaker.

Because of a strike in the Belgium aviation sector, the Presidency said President Akufo-Addo had to travel via charter flight to Kigali because of flight cancellations.

“This was done to ensure that the President made it to Kigali on time to participate in the ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday, 23rd June, for the commencement 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 also is being held in Kigali, Rwanda.”

“I do not think the Member of Parliament for North Tongu is suggesting, in any shape or form, that the President, in view of these challenges in Brussels and also in view of the President’s security, should have travelled from Brussels to Amsterdam or London, for example, in the forlorn hope of trying to get a flight to Rwanda.”

Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com