Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has disclosed that President John Dramani Mahama travelled to Japan on an Emirates commercial flight, not on a private jet as claimed by an opposition member of parliament.
The disclosure was made following claims by New Patriotic Party MP for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafua, who alleged that the President travelled on a private jet, specifically the M-BAEP, which reportedly left Accra around 7 a.m. this morning. The private jet is estimated to cost $15,000 per hour to rent.
In an interview with Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Kwakye Ofosu described the opposition MP’s claims as a “mediocre attempt to spread false propaganda.”
He said, “Clearly, the MP in question is tabling in a mediocre attempt at propaganda. He does not have any facts. He is just wasting everybody’s time with claims that are false.”
Kwakye Ofosu added, “President Mahama has not travelled by private jet. President Mahama travelled to Japan via Emirates. And it is something that you can check. It is not a secret or anything. So anybody who tells you otherwise is simply peddling falsehood.”
The minister also highlighted a timeline inconsistency in the MP’s claim, noting that the President was present at a thanksgiving service for the late Dr. Edward Omane Boamah on the morning the private jet was said to have departed.
“As of 10 a.m., the President was at the service, and he left around midday, yet the MP claims the jet took off at 7:30 a.m. How then could the President be at the service after supposedly departing on that flight?” Kwakye Ofosu questioned.
Kwakye Ofosu described the claims as “a complete waste of everybody’s time” and “a symbolic effort at propaganda which will badly backfire.”
He stressed that parliamentary oversight is a serious activity that should be conducted by meticulous minds, not by those who waste time with claims “that have no factual basis.”
He emphasized, “Parliamentary oversight is an extremely serious activity. It is engaged in by the most meticulous and serious minds that we have in Parliament. It is not the place of anybody to get up and purport to be doing parliamentary scrutiny, only to end up wasting everybody’s time with claims that have no factual basis. That does not make any kind of sense.”
When asked if members of the delegation may have flown the private jet ahead, Kwakye Ofosu responded swiftly, saying, “Nobody, nobody, nobody has flown. Indeed, if you read their posts, the MP has not even said that that jet went to Japan. Why will the delegation going to Japan go to Germany? Nobody has sat on any private jet to go anywhere as part of this delegation going to Japan. The President himself flown commercial so why will anybody travel private jet as a member of this delegation.”
Minister Kwakye Ofosu also took the opportunity to remind the public of President Mahama’s cost-conscious approach to travel since assuming office.
He noted that, due to the unavailability of the presidential jet, the President had opted for commercial flights as an economical alternative, underscoring the administration’s efforts to avoid unnecessary expenditure of public funds.
