Former Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has urged the government to immediately introduce insurance cover for all military helicopters, following last week’s crash that claimed the lives of eight Ghanaians, including two ministers of state.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Wednesday, August 13, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu revealed that none of Ghana’s military helicopters currently has an insurance policy.
He called on the government to insure the fleet, given its expanding role beyond purely military operations.
“The military copters are not insured, but given where we are today and the fact that cities are far between, and apart from ensuring routine servicing, given the fact that they have become regular means of transport for the president, ministers, and so on, the time has come for us to consider perhaps insuring these ones that serve other purposes other than just military purposes,” he said.
He likened the situation to the period before the Accra Sports Stadium disaster, when stadiums in Ghana were not insured.
“Remember that until the tragedy befell the nation at Accra Stadium, the stadia in the country were not insured.
“But then Parliament took a decision and requested the ministry and the football association, the GFA, to start immediately from the next succeeding year to insure our stadia, and ever since, we have been doing that,” he explained.
On the status of the military aircraft, former Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul clarified that while all four of the Z-9 helicopters are due for maintenance this year, they are not obsolete.
“These aircraft are actually stationed in Takoradi; they’re not stationed in Accra because they are Ghana Gas aircraft. Ghana Gas bought them for pipeline surveillance, and President Mahama commissioned them for the Ghana Air Force to use,” Mr Nitiwul said.
He added that Ghana Gas provides funding for servicing and maintenance whenever needed.
“In fact, those aircraft are due for servicing this year, but they are still allowed to fly. This year, the three that are left will go for servicing. One actually had a problem in 2019 or 2020, en route from Daboya in the north to Tamale.
“It came down just like how this one came down, but they all survived. We left that aircraft because it was badly damaged. So this is not the first time it has happened, but we made sure that we kept all of them in good shape,” he said.
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