Sankofa Aero Club Re-Opens Today

Sankofa Aero club, Ghana's sole flying school is to re-open for business today barely a week after it was sensationally closed down by armed troopers, Chronicle has learnt.

Chronicle learnt that armed soldiers who were posted to secure the facility, a favourite play ground of ex-President Jerry John Rawlings would be disengaged today and sent back to the barracks for normal academic work to proceed. The club, located at Afienya a few miles from the main Tema-Motorway round-about was closed down last Thursday for no officially assigned reason. However many observers have interpreted it as a security precaution that had to be taken in the light of Rawlings' incendiary and treasonable June 4 speech.

Close on the spot monitoring of the situation since the closure, Chronicle intelligence observed a significant reduction in the number of armed personnel posted at the facility. The number had shrunk to just a few men. The military helicopter, which was flying sorties in the area, has also not been sighted, residents told the Chronicle. The main gate leading to the club is however still locked and is being watched around the clock by heavily armed soldiers.

Management sources however confirmed the story but would not give reasons for the closure. Neither would National Security and the Ghana Armed Forces under whose purview the operation was carried. The top-flight club, which started as a gliding school by the government of first President Kwame Nkrumah, is owned by some top Air Force officers with close links with the Rawlings, a known flying buff. A fee of about $7,000 (?49million) is charged for the Professional Pilot Licensing Course, a course that prepares or puts one in good stead for the commercial pilot course.

Rawlings is the chief patron of the club. Group Captain Richard Forjoe and Air Commodore Kwame Mamphey are President and Member of the Sankofa board respectively.