Service passport racketeering started under NPP – Vice Chair of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee

The Vice Chairperson of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Committee, Cletus Seidu Dapalah, has accused the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration of failing to address alleged service passport racketeering that he says began in 2023.

He claims the alleged scheme was facilitated by Alhassan Sumani, whom he described as an intermediary who operated around the corridors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Passport Application Centre.

Speaking on JoyFM’s Top Story on Monday, November 9, Mr Dapalah also questioned the basis of the Minority’s claims over letters bearing the signature of the Ministry’s Chief Director, which allegedly approved passports for individuals holding public positions they did not occupy.

The Minority has presented the letters as evidence of irregularities, but the Ministry’s spokesperson, Fred Doho, has reportedly said the signatures were forged and the documents did not originate from the Ministry.

Mr Dapalah argued that the Minority had not sufficiently verified the information before making it public.

“Let me state clearly that oversight is a job that comes with in-depth analysis of information gathered. When you gather information, you see the information, you interrogate the information, you double-check your facts before you put it out there.

“That is what my friends on the other side feel. They haven't been in-depth with their data. They have not double-checked.

“They have no facts as far as this issue is concerned. They just got some information and they ran with it to the media to throw dust in the eyes of Ghanaians,” he said.

He maintained that the alleged racketeering did not begin under the current administration, insisting that it started during the NPP's tenure.

“The issue of service passports racketeering started back in 2023. Who was in office then? It was their government (NPP) that was in power,” he said.

Mr Dapalah alleged that Mr Sumani had connections within the Ministry and used them to facilitate a visa-racketeering syndicate.

He further claimed that Mr Sumani had collected money from a pastor and his wife in exchange for service passports but failed to deliver all the documents.

According to him, the couple had since been pursuing him for their money.

The MP also questioned the presence of former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aprah Twum, at a Minority press conference on the matter, arguing that the alleged activities began when he was responsible for passport applications.

He alleged that Mr Sumani was recruited into the Ministry on November 29, 2024, after the general election, at a time when the NPP was preparing to leave office.

Mr Dapalah claimed that the recruitment gave Mr Sumani access to the Ministry's letterhead, which he allegedly used to forge the Chief Director's signature on passport-related documents.

“So the same guy, once he found himself into the ministry, he had access to the ministry's letterhead and he then used the ministry letterhead to forge the signature of the chief director,” he added