The Minority in Parliament says about 300 Ghanaians have travelled to Europe and other destinations on diplomatic and service passports they paid for, and it will ask the House on Monday to open a bipartisan investigation.
At a press conference in Parliament on Sunday, November 8, Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, alleged that officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Passport Office ran a travel-and-tour network that issued special passports to people who did not qualify for them.
The briefing came a few hours after the Ministry cancelled 10 Service Passports it said were issued illegally since 2023, interdicted Acting Passport Director Mahama Yahaya Amantana and junior officer Alhassan Sumani, and referred both to the police. The Ministry has said its inquiry covers a service-passport scheme and that there is no evidence, so far, that Ghana's diplomatic passports are being sold.
Jinapor put the alleged scale much higher. "As at now, our sources indicate that some 300 Ghanaians have travelled to Europe and other destinations using diplomatic and service passports allegedly issued through this arrangement," he said.
He presented redacted passport biodata pages, approval letters, two GCB Bank cash deposit receipts dated June 15 and June 24, 2026, and mobile money records, including payments made on June 24. The people who provided the records, he said, described the transactions as payments for diplomatic and service passports and promised travel arrangements. The Minority named Ibrahim Wallee as the person who handled the operation in Ghana and Bright Yeboah Owusu as an agent in Europe who allegedly collected payments on behalf of ministry and Passport Office officials.
Jinapor also displayed letters he said were signed on behalf of Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, approving passports for applicants given false titles at bodies including the Ghana TVET Service, the Fisheries Commission and NADMO. One June 1, 2026 letter described an applicant as Deputy Director of Audit Services at the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council; another, three days later, gave the same person the title of Deputy District Coordinating Director at the Akrofuom District Assembly. The Minority further alleged that ministry staff helped beneficiaries through the airport to bypass Ghana Immigration Service checks. 3News reported that the claims have not been independently verified and that none of the people named has been charged.
Jinapor said diplomatic passports give visa-free entry to 62 countries and service passports to 59, with only Hong Kong, Qatar and Turkey treating them differently. On Monday, November 9, the caucus says it will file a motion under Article 103 of the Constitution for an ad hoc committee to review all diplomatic and service passport approvals from January 7, 2025, until the motion is adopted. He argued that the Ministry cannot investigate itself and called for the minister and the interdicted Passport Director to be summoned under oath.