Lawyer Kwame Owusu Danso, running mate to independent presidential candidate Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen in the 2024 elections, has accused some former appointees of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of misusing state resources during their time in office.
He alleged that under the previous administration, certain officials travelled abroad just to watch football matches or even buy pizza.
“When you [NPP] were in government, you had people who were flying from Ghana to watch Arsenal and Manchester play on the weekend. They would fly out and fly back. Some even flew out just to buy pizza and returned the same day,” he stated.
Kwame Danso made the comments on Accra-based Pan Africa TV on Friday, May 23, while responding to criticisms over Vice President Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang’s use of a private jet to return from a medical trip to the United Kingdom.
The Vice President returned to Ghana on Thursday, May 22, after two months abroad.
On the same day, Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, claimed in a social media post that the flight cost the state over $170,000—calling it insensitive given Ghana’s current economic challenges.
But Kwame Danso, who is also the husband of the Vice President’s Press Secretary, Ama Pratt, dismissed the allegations as baseless and unreasonable.
“Some people in the NPP have been saying that the Vice President flew in with a private jet. So I wonder—did they want her to fly in with STC? Did they want the Vice President to return home to us on an OA bus? Or perhaps they expected her to come back in a sprinter bus? She’s the Vice President, for crying out loud,” he said.
“What is the evidence that she even paid from government funds? Ibrahim Mahama has a private jet, and in her appreciation, she singled him out for the many things he did while she was admitted in the UK. Ibrahim Mahama even flew to the United Kingdom to be by her side—and that in itself was healing,” Danso added.
