Ministry Confesses Passport Scandal: Minority Files Probe Motion Today

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially admitted that a massive passport fraud syndicate has been operating within its walls, confirming that unqualified persons were illegally issued Service Passports for a fee pocketed by fraudulent persons.

Two suspects have been handed over to the Police and 10 illegally approved passports revoked.  One of the suspects is reported to be a former National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary aspirant for the Bole-Bamboi constituency.

The Ministry’s shocking admission comes just after the Minority in Parliament announced it will file a motion today for an independent parliamentary probe into the alleged sale of both Service and Diplomatic passports.

In a statement released yesterday, the Ministry confirmed it has suspended (interdicted) the Acting Director of Passports, Mr. Mahama Yahaya Amantana, and a junior officer, Alhassan Sumani is accused of being the chief architect of the syndicate. He is said to have worked as a “goro boy” before his recruitment.

Both Mahama Yahaya Amantana and Alhassan Sumani have been handed over to the Ghana Police Service for further investigation and possible prosecution.

The Ministry also published a list of 10 individuals who paid huge amounts of money including $29,000 and $5,000 to illegally obtain Service passports they are not qualified to hold.

The Ministry claims all the illegal Service Passports have been cancelled, international partners notified, and a retired Director of Passports, Ambassador Mohammed Habib Idris, will also be investigated.

However, the Ministry insists there is no evidence that Diplomatic Passports are being sold.

But the Minority, led by Ranking Member on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Abu Jinapor, says the Ministry is not telling the whole truth.

At a press conference yesterday, Samuel Abu Jinapor presented damning evidence, including approval letters and bank deposit slips, showing that fraudulent passports were approved as recently as 2026, not just 2023 as the Ministry claims.

The Minority presented official documents to back their claims, including approval letters issued in the name of Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

According to the Minority, checks at the various institutions revealed that many of the people listed in the letters did not work there at all, while some of the job titles did not even exist.

But the most glaring evidence of fraud was found in two separate letters signed by the Chief Director of the Ministry, Ambassador Khadija Iddrisu, on behalf of the Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

The first letter (SAJ 1), dated June 1, 2026, approved Service Passports for supposed officials of the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council. Listed among the names was a certain Mr. Amoh Boadi, who was described as the “Deputy Director, Audit Services.”

However, in a second letter (SAJ 2) dated June 4, 2026, just three days later, the Ministry approved passports for supposed officials of the Akrofuom District Assembly. Miraculously, the same Mr. Amoh Boadi appeared on this list, but this time, he was described as the “Deputy District Coordinating Director.”

Samuel Abu Jinapor questioned how the same person could occupy two completely different senior government positions at two different institutions within 72 hours. He demanded to know who supplied these fake details and what background checks, if any, were done before the Ministry granted the approvals.

The Minority is therefore pushing for a full parliamentary inquiry from January 2025 to date, arguing that the Ministry cannot investigate itself.

“We need to know how many passports were properly issued, how many were not, and what has happened to those that should never have been issued,” Samuel Abu Jinapor said.

The Ranking Member on Foreign Affairs shared some of the experiences these passport holders have recounted to the Minority Caucus:

“Some say they paid money to the agent and were issued with diplomatic or service passports. However, when it was time to travel and they needed the promised assistance from officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Passport Office to clear immigration, they were left stranded. Their calls went unanswered, and they were unable to obtain refunds of the monies they paid.

“Others, we are informed, managed to travel abroad with the assistance of officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the agent involved in the travel and tour business.

“Our checks indicate that none of these people are qualified to hold these passports. That is all the more reason why a parliamentary probe is absolutely necessary.”

Samuel Jinapor said, these passports and the accounts of their holders were among the matters the Minority sought to bring before Parliament last week: “we wanted the opportunity to place the evidence before Parliament, have the persons involved appear and explain themselves, and establish how these passports came to be issued.

“The Rt. Honourable Speaker directed the Minority to present these matters through the proper procedure. That is why we are filing a motion with all these documents attached. The copies of the passports will therefore be available to Parliament for a thorough examination.

“Again, these matters are too serious to be left unresolved. That is why we are also bringing this information before the public, so that Ghanaians can understand the basis of our concerns and why we insist that there must be an independent parliamentary inquiry”, Samuel Jinapor added.