Prez. Akufo-Addo did not spend €480,000 on Belgium, Rwanda trips – Presidency

Director of Communications at the Office of the President, Eugene Arhin says claims by North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa that President Akufo-Addo is spending an amount of EUR 480,000, equivalent to GHC 4.1 million for his current trips to Belgium and Rwanda are inaccurate.

The MP in a Facebook post alleged that the President travelled aboard an Airbus ACJ319 and EUR 480,000 cost is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges.

But in a statement released on Friday, June 24, Eugene Arhin said he wished the MP would have been factual, truthful and resisted the urge to engage in propaganda.

Mr.Arhin explained that the President did not travel on a chartered airbus as is being alleged but onboard an Air France commercial flight and only used a chartered flight from Brussels to Rwanda due to an ongoing aviation strike in Brussels.

“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,” he noted.

“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,” he added.