The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has asked for a rescheduling of the question of Samuel Okudeto Ablakwa on the cost of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s recent trip to France, Belgium and South Africa in a rented aircraft.

The question was filed by Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee who considers the move by the President as “obscene profligacy”.

The North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP) had claimed in the two-prong question that the total cost of travelling in that aircraft owned by UK-based Acropolis Aviation was GH¢2.8 million.

On Wednesday, June 16, the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, was in Parliament to answer his part of the urgent question.

“The decision to travel particularly to long and multiple destinations such as the president travelling to France, Belgium, South African and back to Ghana especially during this Covid time will always require a larger capacity aircraft such as a DBKJ or an aircraft ATJ 319 even when the Falcon is air ready,” the Bimbilla MP said.

But on Thursday, June 17 when Mr Ofori-Atta was supposed to come to the House to answer the question, it was missing from the day’s order paper contrary to its advertisement on Wednesday.

Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Andrew Asiamah Amoako, who chaired proceedings, was told the matter came up during the discussion of the business of the day earlier and the Finance Minister requested a rescheduling of the question.

“So, Honorable Ablakwa I will persuade you that the question will be rescheduled and the Minister of Finance will come and respond to it, Mr Speaker,” Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu assured.

• Dominic Nitiwul says safety is the number one condition in picking an aircraft for the president

• He believes the country should be concerned with the President’s safety at all times

• Okudzeto Ablakwa however believes that the cost of hiring the craft should be also be a factor

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu has taken to social media to issue a counter-argument to claims by the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul that cost does not feature prominently in selecting an aircraft for President Akufo-Addo and other state officials.

Nitiwul told Parliament on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, that the safety of the president is the most important element of consideration in the choice of an aircraft for his trips.

He sought to suggest cost ought not to be a decisive factor as the safety of the persons who will occupy the craft should take precedent.

“The choice of an aircraft is not the issue of resources. The choice of an aircraft for a country is about the safety of the crew and the VIP travelling. If Parliament writes to the Ministry of Defence for an aircraft for a trip as you have been doing, when I’m looking for an aircraft for you the first thing I will consider is your safety.

“A faster aircraft is $10,000 so here from to Tamale it will cost the government $10,000 but if I’m to give you a helicopter, it will cost $5,000.

The priority is safety first and many countries including Senegal has two aircraft which are like the ones the president has used,” he said.

Taking his Twitter handler, Ablakwa questioned why the minister will make such statement.

He tweeted “How on Earth can the Defence Minister tell Parliament cost doesn’t matter in considering which aircraft to charter for the President! We are really doomed!!!’ he posted.

Dominic Nitiwul had to make an appearance in Parliament after Ablakwa raised alarm over a $15,000-per-hour trip flown by President Akufo-Addo to France, Belgium and South Africa.

Ablakwa felt the plane was luxurious and the cost involved was too much for a country grappling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

• He said the transaction shows that Akufo-Addo came into the office on rhetoric

• He indicated that his article demonstrates what consequences await the Special Prosecutor

Martin A. B. K. Amidu, the formal Special Prosecutor has opened another conversation on the Agyapa Royalties Transaction where the Akufo-Addo-led government wants to invest the country’s royalties in a tax haven.

According to him, the analysis on the Agyapa Royalties deal “teaches all Ghanaians that this Government came to power on the strength of the rhetorical abilities of a candidate who had perfected the art of saying one thing and doing exactly the opposite”.

In his latest article copied to GhanaWeb, the former deputy Attorney General and Minister for Justice explained:

“The Office of the Special Prosecutor and the first Special Prosecutor were intended as [a] mere window dressing to Ghanaians and [the] world while the public purse continued to be raped through purposeful corruption activities on the blind side of the voters who brought the President into power.

I was hoodwinked like many other Ghanaians, first to support the Kabuki campaign of candidate Nana Akufo-Addo for President during the 2016 elections and secondly to accept to be the Special Prosecutor (in the teeth of my initial refusal to be nominated for the office of Special Prosecutor) with the assurance of real independence to perform the functions of that Office. I never phantom that the President I trusted and upon whose honour I accepted the office merely wanted to use my known public reputation and integrity to foster suspicious corruption and corruption activities in his government. I wish the next Special Prosecutor good luck during his tenure.”

Amidu further indicated that his article demonstrates what consequences await any appointee of this Government who takes literally as I did, the President’s rhetoric of “be citizens’ and not “spectators”.

“The Agyapa Royalties Transactions anti-corruption analysis and assessment report was done professionally without fear or favour, affection, or ill will. When our political rhetorical President saw that the report implicated him, his family and friends in suspected corruption activities, an official government anti-corruption assessment supported by law became an instrument of political damage control for his government.

The President not only sought to interfere for me to shelve the report from the public, but the President also went further after failing to have my co-operation, to lead and signal his family and friends kabuki dance ensemble to assassinate my character, my reputation and possibly my person as evidenced by the actions and pronouncements of his supporters,” Martin Amidu said.

He argues, ‘“Time is everything”, indeed’ but I am not, as a citizen of Ghana, going to be intimidated by the fear of death or the use of the power of the state at the disposal of any President and his cohorts from continuing to defend the 1992 Constitution as enjoined by the Constitution itself. I refuse to be intimidated by the Nana Akufo-Addo, family, and friends’ Kabuki theatre into a culture of silence if I remain their target for damnation. Fortunately, other suspected corruption activities of this Government such as the procurement of the Sputnik V vaccines and others are currently topical suspected corruption activities.

The apolitical #FixTheCountry movement and the galvanized attempts by the government to suppress the expression of its free will shows how silence through fear can negate the citizen’s rights under our Constitution. Let all of us as patriotic Ghanaians resist at the peril of our comfort and lives the attempt by this government to suppress our rights to defend the 1992 Constitution. That is the only surest way to protect the Constitution and put Ghana First.”

Read below his full article.