Mensah Thompson, the Executive Director of the Alliance For Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), has been detained. He will spend t
Mensah Thompson, the Executive Director of the Alliance For Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), has been detained.
He will spend the night at the Teshie District Police Command in Accra.
Mensah Thompson has also been charged with publication of false news.
He is expected to be arraigned before the Kaneshie District Court tomorrow, Thursday, February 10.
The arrest is in connection with a formal complaint against him by the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) over allegations that children of Akufo-Addo’s relative used the presidential jet for Christmas shopping in the UK.
Early January this year, Mensah Thompson alleged that the children of President Akufo-Addo’s relative used the presidential jet to go for Christmas shopping in the UK.
According to him, the 10-day shopping trip took place between the 20th and 30th of December last year.
“So between the 20th and 30th of December, 2021..during the Christmas, the children of a close relative of the President took Ghana’s Presidential Jet the Falcon EX jet on a trip to the UK just for Christmas shopping,” Mensah Thompson wrote in a Facebook post sighted by this portal.
He also noted that the children of the relative of the president didn’t go on the fun-filled trip alone, but in the company of their friends.
“They didn’t go alone, they went with their friends and partied in the sky all through the trip, taking snap videos and flaunting their lucky adventure,” he added.
In reaction, the Ghana Armed Forces debunked the claims.
In a press statement issued by the Acting Director of the Department of Public Relations Commander Andy La-Anyane, GAF noted that the said aircraft has not embarked on any trip to Europe in a long while.
“We wish to state that the said publication is untrue 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’s imagination,” excepts of the statement said.
Few moments later, Mensah Thompson backtracked on his claims and rendered an unqualified apology.
“In the same medium I made the earlier publication, I withdraw the publication pending an official response from the GCAA. I unreservedly apologise to the Ghana Armed Forces if their image was in anyway affected by my publication. We shall put out for your consumption the response to our request from the GCAA records of the Falcon 900-EX.”, he posted on social media.
Despite the apology, GAF insisted that it will file a complaint at the police for the allegations to be investigated.
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