Concealing cost of Akufo-Addo’s foreign travels injurious to national security – Security analyst

Minority files motion demanding bipartisan probe into Akufo-Addo’s travels

Felix Kwakye Ofosu blows alarm on cost of presidential travels

Kan Dapaah defends government officials' silence on cost of presidential travels

Security analyst, Colonel Festus Aboagye, has rubbished the National Security minister’s defense to have the cost of President Akufo-Addo’s foreign trips kept out of thargument's eye.


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Speaking on the floor of parliament on Friday December 17, 2021, the sector minister, Albert Kan Dapaah, insisted that presidential travel cost remains an issue of confidentiality thus should be kept under state secrecy.

This is after the North Tongu legislator, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa had filed a question in the House on the President Akufo-Addo’s recent travels to France, Belgium and South Africa.

But reacting to the development, Colonel Festus Aboagye questioned the basis of Kan Dapaah’s argument.

He indicated that revealing the cost of presidential travels cannot amount to compromising national security.

“National security is about dealing with the threats that can injure the interest and well-being of the state. How does cost of presidential flight become a threat to the state? It cannot be placed in the same category as a hostile external country …it cannot be placed in the same category as terrorism…it cannot be placed in the same category as national disasters,” he argued on Accra-based Joy FM.

Colonel Festus Aboagye also added that attempts by government officials to shroud the presidential travel cost in secrecy will rather be injurious to national security.

“Indeed on the contrary, if the people of Ghana know how much their president has spent and they are happy about it, that sense of contentment, satisfaction rather promotes and enhances national security. Under the current circumstances, I am inclined to suggest that the attempts by the authority to conceal the cost of presidential flights from the country is injurious to national security,” he further stated.

Meanwhile, the minority in parliament has filed a private member's motion demanding a bipartisan probe into the cost of the presidents travels.