<\/p>\n
Executive Director of pro opposition pressure group, Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson, has apologized to the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) for wrongly stating that the Presidential aircraft of the Ghana Air Force was used by relatives of the President for a shopping trip to the United Kingdom between 20th\u00a0and 30th\u00a0of December 2021.<\/p>\n
His apology on Facebook was before the GAF issued a statement denying his claim.<\/p>\n
He had earlier written on Facebook that \u201cSo between the 20th and 30th of December, 2021l, during the Christmas, the children of a close relative of the President took Ghana\u2019s Presidential Jet, the Falcon EX jet on a trip to the UK just for Christmas shopping. They didn\u2019t go alone, they went with their friends and partied in the sky all through the trip, taking snap videos and flaunting their lucky adventure.<\/p>\n
\u201cGhana has spent close to half a billion dollars in the last two years renting private jets for our President, whiles his family members continue to lavish in our rejected aircraft at the expense of the poor taxpayer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe\u00a0Ministry of National Security, the Ghana Airforce and the Civil Aviation Authority would have to provide answers to the good people of Ghana why a national security asset like the Presidential jet was left at the mercy of spoilt youngsters who went partying around the world playing in Ghana\u2019s Presidential jet, creating an international diplomatic spectacle embarrassing the country Ghana.\u201d<\/p>\n
But just before the GAF released its statement denying the claim, he wrote again that \u201cI have had an extensive conversation this morning with the PRO of the Ghana Armed Forces under the usage of the Presidential jet by the children of the relatives of the President.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the same medium I made the earlier publication, I withdraw the publication pending an official response from the GCAA. I unreservedly apologize to the Ghana Armed Forces if their image was in any way affected by my publication.
\u201cWe shall put out for your consumption the response to our request from the GCAA records of the Falcon 900-EX.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ghana Armed Forces in denying the claim urged the general public to disregard Mensah Thompson\u2019s comment.<\/p>\n
A statement issued by Acting Director Public Relations GAF, Commander Andy La-Anyone on Sunday, January 9 said \u201cWe wish to state without any equivocation that the said publication is untrue, frivolous, and without any basis. We additionally wish to state that the said aircraft has not been to Europe for a very long time and this publication is, therefore, a figment of the author\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese allegations can easily be verified since there is always a task order for the movement of all Ghana Air Force platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that this unfortunate publication which has been circulated widely is a calculated effort to undermine the image of the Ghana Armed Forces in the eyes of the general public. More disturbing is the fact that whilst the GAF is focused on its mandate of protecting the territorial integrity of the country against serious external and internal threats, others are working very hard to distract us from our core mandate\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are calling on all Ghanaians, especially politicians once again, not to drag the GAF into any partisan politics\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Ghana Air Force platforms will continue to be used for the interest of all Ghanaians including its traditional role of maintaining fighter ground attack capabilities and providing close air support during operations, as well as providing transport support to the Ghana Armed Forces. We will continue to provide surveillance over the air space of Ghana and the Exclusive Economic Zone of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the seriousness, we attach to such malicious publications, the issue has been referred to the\u00a0Inspector General of Police\u00a0for further investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Executive Director of pro opposition pressure group, Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), Mensah Thompson, has apologized to the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) for wrongly stating that the Presidential aircraft of the Ghana Air Force was used by relatives of the President for a shopping trip to the United Kingdom between 20th\u00a0and 30th\u00a0of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":742634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-742633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}