NPP alleges Ablakwa knew of passport scheme before its exposure

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa of having prior knowledge of alleged irregularities in the issuance of Ghanaian passports, questioning his claim that he was unaware of the activities within the Ministry.

The party’s National Communications Director, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, made the allegation at a press conference on Monday, November 9, 2026, alongside members of the Minority Caucus in Parliament.

He questioned how the Minister could establish that no Diplomatic Passports had been implicated in the alleged scheme while maintaining that he had no prior knowledge of the activities.

"How did the Minister know that there were no diplomatic passports if he claims he has no knowledge of the scheme? A scheme that is being orchestrated under your blind side, as you claim, by people within your ministry, which you are only getting to know after we brought it to the fore," he said.

Mr Aboagye further alleged that the Minister knew about the scheme and questioned the circumstances surrounding the appointment of the Director of Passports.

He suggested that concerns had been raised within the Ministry about the appointment of the official, whom he claimed did not meet the requirements for the position.

"Is it the case that those at the ministry who are raising issues and saying that the Minister knows about this scheme because he knew why he appointed this particular gentleman as Director of Passports even though he doesn't qualify and kept him there all this while from last year till now? He knew about the scheme. Can he give us a response for that?" he asked.

The NPP communications director did not provide further details to substantiate the claims at the press conference.

Mr Aboagye said the passport matter was not the only issue the party intended to raise about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"There are a lot more issues at the Foreign Affairs Ministry that are going to be discussed in the next few days. We have them in hard copy evidence. We have them in hard copies, soft copies, saved in the cloud everywhere and there is no absolute way that any of this evidence can go anywhere," he said.

He did not disclose the specific nature of the additional allegations.

Mr Aboagye said the NPP supports the Minority Caucus’s demand for a parliamentary inquiry into the alleged passport irregularities.

He called on the Speaker of Parliament to consider the request by the Ranking Member and other members of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

"We in the New Patriotic Party support the Minority Caucus in Parliament. We are fully behind the committee members and we are calling on the Speaker to listen and hear the call of the Ranking Member and the Foreign Affairs Committee members for a full parliamentary inquiry," he said.

He also questioned the propriety of allowing the Minister to rely on findings from an investigative committee established by the Ministry.

"The Minister who is supervising this fraud cannot be the one showing us reports of a committee he has established," he added.

The NPP’s demands follow the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ disclosure that preliminary investigations had identified 10 Service Passports allegedly issued irregularly to individuals who did not qualify for them since 2023.

The Ministry said the suspected irregularities involved alleged illegal payments to a syndicate.

The Acting Director of Passports, Mahama Yahaya Amantana, and Alhassan Sumani have been interdicted and referred to the Ghana Police Service for further investigations and possible prosecution.

The Ministry has clarified that its preliminary findings have not established that Ghana’s Diplomatic Passports are being sold, stressing that the investigation concerns Service Passports.

The Minority has called for a parliamentary inquiry, while the Majority has maintained that the Ministry’s committee should be allowed to complete its work.