Stop muddying the waters with your negative comments, nothing wrong with George Weah’s use of our presidential jet – said Ablakwa

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described the occasional use of the Ghanaian presidential plane by heads of state from any other country in the sub-region as normal practice.

Such assistance is said to be part of bilateral and multilateral diplomatic relations between countries, adding that Ghanaian leaders have also benefited in the past from such gestures.

The ministry is responding to a request for answers from North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on why Liberia President George Weah was allegedly allowed to use the Ghanaian presidential plane to attend an emergency summit in ECOWAS.

In a response statement, the ministry said that “Mr. Ablakwa’s island posture is a surprise.”

“In light of the relentless and concerted efforts of the leaders of ECOWAS to negotiate peace in the region, the department finds it rather regrettable that the Hon. Okedezeto Ablakwa is reportedly deliberately trying to muddy the waters with these negative comments. ”

The use of the presidential plane has been in the news for a few months after North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa tabled urgent questions demanding disclosure of the full cost of President Akufo-Addo’s recent overseas trips without the use of the official presidential jet.

In addition, he says he hopes to get answers on Mr Weah’s use of the jet when Parliament meets again next month after the recess.

But the Foreign Ministry strongly opposed the position taken by Mr. Ablakwa who is also a high-ranking member of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

“In the last of these statements, the Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa has sought to suggest that transporting the President of Liberia, His Excellency George Weah, overseas aboard Ghana’s presidential jet to participate in the ECOWAS emergency summit during the recent political crisis in Guinea, is constitutive and improper. Nothing could be further from the truth ”

“It should be noted that the practice of sharing travel resources between West African heads of state and senior officials is not a recent phenomenon. Indeed, in the past, some Heads of State, in their capacity as President of ECOWAS, granted this courtesy ”, explained the ministry.

— city