According to him, when the President was at the G20 summit in Germany, the aircraft had been rented for a 15-day round trip by a different African President, which mean it could not be the President for the Republic of Ghana.
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Nana Addo's luxurious VIP jet: Ablakwa lied; he has no evidence - Eugene Arhin
The "Member of Parliament for North Tongu had peddled falsehood when he indicated that, the President on July 28 when he went to the Global Education summit in the UK had used the LX-DIO Boeing aircraft, he again said the President sometime in August when he went for the G20 Compact with Africa summit had used this same LX-DIO aircraft and I still maintain my position that the MP peddled falsehood," Eugene Arhin, the Director of Communications at the Presidency has said.
Presidential jet
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He said "In his [Ablakwa] statement that he put out recently, if indeed he claimed I peddled falsehood, I'm sure he would have put out the evidence indicating the President had used these particular jets on these particular days, of course, he didn't. He didn't because there is no such evidence."
VIP jet to Germany
Pulse Ghana
"Let me put on record that, on July 28, when the President attended the Global Education summit in the UK; you can do your own checks and if you think I'm peddling falsehood, you can expose me. Take a phone and call the company that operates that particular jet and ask them, for example on July 28, where was that jet and they will tell you that on July 28, during the entire period of the global education summit for three days LX-DIO was parked at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport…and was nowhere in the UK that is being insinuated by the MP," he added.
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Ablakwa alleges
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo travelled to Germany at the invitation of the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.
During the trip, the President, among other things, delivered a speech in Dusseldorf, Germany, last Monday as part of the 75th-anniversary celebration of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s number one industrial region and most populous state.
Commenting on the President's trip in a Facebook post on Tuesday, August 31, Ablakwa said "It has become absolutely imperative to demand a national policy on presidential travels akin to what pertains in other jurisdictions.
"This is most crucial to avoid the wanton abuse of discretion by President Akufo-Addo at the expense of the suffering taxpayer. In many other jurisdictions, presidential travels are regulated by strict policies which mandate presidents to use presidential aircraft for official purposes. Indeed, in other countries such as the USA, presidents are obliged to reimburse the state if presidential aircraft are used for private business — that private business includes political campaigns and political fundraising events."
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He added: "Clearly, richer countries whose benevolence we are depending on to come to our aid with COVID-19 vaccines as our president pleaded with the Germans a few days ago are undoubtedly doing much better than us in ensuring that taxpayer funds are not dissipated in catering for the lavish lifestyles of insensitive leaders.
"From our continuous monitoring, President Akufo-Addo still prefers to use VIP charter jets for his European travels despite being in firm possession of Ghana's presidential jet – the Dassault Falcon 900-EXE which remains in pristine condition and can fly non-stop to all those European destinations. Since Ghana received President Kufuor's ordered Falcon in 2010, both President Mills and President Mahama have used the long-range aircraft for all presidential travels."
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