General News of Monday, 4 October 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-10-04Ghana loaned us their presidential jet - Guinea-Bissau President confirms
Guinea-Bissau president boards Falcon and his arrival in Sao Tome on official duty
• Ghana's presidential jet has recently been serving other West African leaders
• The most recent being Guinea-Bissau president Umar Sissoco Embalo
• His office confirmed on Facebook that Ghana loaned the jet to Bissau for use
Ghana’s Dassault Falcon 900 EXE has in recent times been used by three African leaders, the government confirmed through the
Read full articleMinistry of Foreign Affairs.
The most recent leader to use it was Guinea-Bissau President, Umaro El Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló, who flew the Falcon to and from the inauguration ceremony of São Tomé President-elect, Carlos Vila Nova.
In pictures sighted by GhanaWeb on President Embaló’s verified Facebook page, he is seen waving at state officials as he boards the Falcon 900 EXE to travel to São Tomé and Príncipe over the weekend.
Other photos also showed his arrival in São Tomé where he was received by the Foreign Affairs Minister of the host country.
One Facebook user, seeing the jet President Embalo was using asked why he was using the presidential jet of Ghana.
"Why the Ghana plane?" Maniga Napolean asked. Which question was responded to by the verified handle as follows: "the plane was loaned by his counterpart." The exchange was in French.
Embalo was the second African president to have used the jet. The first being Liberian President, George Manneh Weah to and from Ghana for an Emergency ECOWAS Summit in Ghana on September 15, 2021.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that aside the two, Sierra Leone president, Julius Maado Bio, had also used it at a point.
The jet that the President of Ghana uses to travel for international conferences has in recent times become a subject of discussion.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been accused by the MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, of abandoning the functional jet for luxury aircrafts that come at huge expense of the ordinary taxpayer.
The MP had stated, he would demand some answers from the Foreign Affairs Minister when Parliament reconvenes, on why the Liberian President was allowed to use the Presidential jet.
The MP had said, in an interview with Citi News, that the Ministry needed to come clean on not only why the African leader was given the jet but also if it will constitute a “double financial burden” on Ghana following Akufo-Addo’s use of another jet for his travels.
The French-built Dassault Falcon 900 EX-Easy aircraft, was acquired during President John Agyekum Kufuor’s era in 2007 but was delivered for use in 2010.
