Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr, editor-in-chief at large of the New Crusading Guide newspaper has criticised the route being used by North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, to demand cost on the president’s recent trip abroad.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP is alleging that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo spent a whopping GHC2.8 million on a private jet on his recent trips to France, Belgium and Johannesburg.
Speaking to Kojo Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday 18 June, Baako said the lawmaker acted unfairly to integrity of parliamentary practice and good governance.
“He asked a question of a minister, adopting the proper means of doing so – parliamentary route – and then he goes outside the Parliamentary arena, goes on the internet, checked some indicative figures of that company that Ghana government did the business with, [and] he throws out those figures,” the veteran journalist said.
Baako added: “And he consistently rallies his people around that figure and other matters and pursues the case in the public space. Meanwhile, he had a question waiting to be answered on the floor of parliament.”
The editor said Ablakwa’s figures cannot be correct.
“But the point is really this, that there is no guarantee that the negotiations between the government of Ghana and that company relative to these transactions were based on these figures,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dominic Nitiwul, the defense minister has justified the president’s decision to charter the private jet for his recent foreign trips.
He argues the safety and security of the president was the ultimate factor in deciding the type of aircraft used for his travels.
Fred Dzakpata
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