Ghana’s Defence Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, has accused the previous Akufo-Addo administration of neglecting the country’s presidential jet, leaving it in an unserviceable condition.

In a statement shared via Facebook on Friday, 23 May, he claimed the aircraft’s fuel tank is corroded and the jet has been grounded abroad for extensive maintenance and repair.

His comments came in response to claims by some New Patriotic Party (NPP) members that Vice President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang had chartered a private jet to return to Ghana from the United Kingdom on Thursday, 22 May, where she had been on medically induced leave.

Dr Boamah rejected these criticisms and redirected the focus to the state of the official presidential aircraft.

“Let the NPP that suffered the most humiliating defeat in recent memory in both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections know this,” Dr Boamah wrote.

“Akufo-Addo’s administration rundown the Presidential jet. Among others, its fuel tank is even corroded.”

He added that the aircraft “has been in the ‘hospital’ abroad for maintenance, repair and overhaul and may be put in a fairly usable state after three months of ‘therapy’.”

Emphasising its current condition, he concluded, “The Presidential jet is unfit for use presently.”