• Hopeson Adorye has hit back at Okudzeto Ablakwa over his criticism of President Akufo-Addo

• Adorye says the president was justified to use a luxurious aircraft for his recent trip to France

• He says the country must be willing to spend on the president

Hopeson Adorye, a failed parliamentary candidate for the New Patriotic Party in the Kpone Katamanso Constituency has justified President Akufo-Addo’s use of the ‘luxurious’ G-KELT aircraft for his recent travel to France and South Africa.

According to him, the position of the president comes with certain benefits and once the country has elected Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as president of the country, he ought to be allowed to engage in any form of ostentatious living.

Leading the charge against the president over the use of the jet is North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who asserts that President Akufo-Addo is engaging in profligate spending. Reacting to this, Hopeson Adorye who was booted out of the National Security as a deputy coordinator said Ablakwa was engaging in propaganda.

He questioned Ablakwa if he wanted the President to ride on a ‘truck’ for his trip since that would have been the most efficient cost-saving measure.

“What Ablakwa is doing is pure propaganda. We have decided as a country to make Nana Akufo-Addo the president and provide everything for him. We all remember what happened in 2018 when the president’s plane encountered some problems in 2018 and God protected him. The president had to abandon the plane and use a commercial plane. Experts have advised that we either buy a new plane for the president or rent one.

“ The presidential jet can take as many as 15 so if he’s travelling with a minister then they have to [use] another aircraft.

“What does he want the president to do or Okudzeto wants the president to be wheeled on a truck because with that you don’t buy fuel or anything? President Akufo-Addo has picked a commercial flight before. On one occasion, his things delayed in London and arrived three days later,” he said on Okay FM.

But on the same show, Okudzeto defended his position, stating the president’s actions are at variance with what he has been preaching.

“If Ghana was your private company and you’ve bought a private jet, would you do that? Would you abandon the jet and use a private jet? Is it really necessary for you to do that? You’ve chartered the most expensive jet. He could have flown commercial. The company had a fleet of jets that we could have spent less than what we spent but we decided to go for top of the range. This is to make money and show that they are in a league of their own that’s why they created this plane.

“Even the company itself says. Why go for the highest at the expense of the taxpayer when going for debt forgiveness? All the countries we are approaching don’t do this. You dare not leave the presidential jet and go for a luxury aircraft to be chilling in the airspace. This is wrong and unconscionable. Someone who promised to protect the public purse is that you protecting the public purse”.