The Executive Secretary of the Bureau of Public Safety (BPS), Nana Yaw Akwada, has welcomed the return of Ghana’s presidential jet but insists the country must demand an independent and fully transparent certification before declaring the aircraft safe for presidential use.
His call comes after confirmations that the Falcon aircraft has arrived back in Ghana following eight months at the Dassault Falcon Service facility in Paris, where it underwent mandatory maintenance, including a 24-month/1,600-hour inspection, defect detection, and manufacturer-supported repairs.
Speaking on Channel One Newsroom on Sunday, November 16, Mr. Akwada described the jet’s return as “good news,” but stressed that Ghana cannot rely solely on internal assessments from the Ghana Armed Forces or repair summaries from the French facility.
“It is good news to hear that the jet is back, but before we can make any concrete statement on its safety or otherwise, it’s very important that we have an independent certification body to let us understand objectively what was established in relation to what the Ghana Armed Forces communicated to us,” he said.
He emphasised that full transparency is crucial, particularly regarding the scope and quality of work carried out on the aircraft.
“We need to know what kind of safety audit, certification, or maintenance routine the aircraft went through. Then we will be able to appreciate and concretely say it is safe for the President to use,” he noted.
Mr. Akwada cautioned that without independent verification and full disclosure, public trust in the jet’s airworthiness will remain shaky.
“In the absence of that, everything else will be rumour and rhetoric. We need to have full disclosure on the scope of the work done, the certified bodies involved, and the post-repair airworthiness status. Only then can we speak objectively and without any shadow of doubt,” he said.
He urged authorities and the public to treat any unofficial claims about the aircraft’s condition as hearsay until a transparent, third-party certification is completed.