The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has dismissed allegations that the Member of Parliament for Bosome Freho, Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, lobbied Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa over a passport for New Patriotic Party (NPP) Second Vice-Chairman Henry Nana Boakye, popularly known as Nana B, describing them as a diversionary tactic.
Mr Jinapor said the allegation was intended to distract from the Minority’s concerns over expenditure on Ghana’s evacuation of citizens from South Africa, for which it is demanding an independent audit.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, October 13, Mr Jinapor said Nana B had never held a diplomatic passport and had surrendered his service passport in accordance with a directive issued by the new government.
“Let me say that that allegation is a complete diversionary tactic, and it’s a rule in the old book, you know it, I know it, and we should not allow ourselves to be distracted,” he said.
Mr Jinapor said he had spoken to Mr Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, who told him that Nana B had formally requested the transfer of a valid visa from his old passport to a new one.
“He had a valid visa in the passport, and he made a requisition, a formal requisition, that the visa be transferred to his new passport, which the minister committed to work on,” Mr Jinapor said.
He added that Mr Asafo-Adjei Ayeh followed up with the minister once and was told the matter was still being processed, after which he did not pursue it further.
The comments follow allegations by the Majority Caucus on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee that Mr Asafo-Adjei Ayeh pressured Mr Ablakwa to allow Nana B to retain a service passport he was allegedly not entitled to hold.
Salaga South MP Hajia Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah made the allegation, claiming that Mr Asafo-Adjei Ayeh and Nana B had sought an exception from the minister.
She said Mr Ablakwa rejected the request because Nana B’s former positions as NPP National Youth Organiser and Board Chairman of the National Food Buffer Stock Company did not qualify him for a service passport.
Mr Jinapor also rejected attempts to link the passport issue to the Minority’s scrutiny of the South Africa evacuation expenditure, insisting that the caucus had not accused the minister of wrongdoing.
Credit: citinewsroom.com