‘You have been caught’ – Miracles Aboagye fires at gov’t over alleged service passport issuance

The National Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has accused the government of attempting to downplay the alleged irregular issuance of Service Passports by describing the matter as a systemic problem.

According to him, officials responsible for the alleged irregularities must be held accountable, arguing that the government cannot treat the matter differently from other corruption cases it has pursued.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Monday, November 9, he criticised the government’s response to the controversy, describing it as an attempt to evade responsibility.

“It’s a shame that we have such clueless people in government. You have been caught,” he said.

“The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the NDC government, you have been caught in 2026 issuing service passports to people and taking money from them in 2026 under your government. And you are telling me that it is a systemic problem. That’s what you are telling me. Is corruption not a systemic problem?”

His comments follow a disclosure by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 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.

Mr Aboagye questioned why the government was pursuing other individuals over alleged corruption-related offences but appeared to be treating the passport issue as a systemic failure.

“Are they not dragging people in and out of court for less? Why are they in court? All the people they are dragging, his government made so much noise about the ORAL. Are they not dragging people? Is it not a systemic problem? Is corruption not a systemic problem?

“So why are they dragging people in court? If they think that when corruption happens under the NDC, and it happens in the ministry under Okudzeto Ablakwa, it should be treated as a systemic problem. Why are they looking for people and dragging them up and down?” he asked.

He also linked the alleged misuse of diplomatic and service passports to security concerns at international airports, claiming that individuals holding such passports could receive preferential treatment at Ghana’s airports.

“Do you know why we are catching cocaine outside Ghana and not at the airport? It is because people who don’t deserve to have diplomatic passports and service passports are holding them.

“So when they get to the airport in Ghana, they are given special treatment. So they walk away with everything. But when they get to their destination airport, they are treated with certain scrutiny, and they are caught all because of your cluelessness,” he said.

Mr Aboagye further rejected comparisons between the current allegations and the activities of intermediaries, commonly known as ‘goro boys’, at passport offices.

He argued that while such intermediaries had been associated with facilitating and speeding up regular passport applications, the current allegations involved the issuance of diplomatic and service passports to individuals who were not entitled to them.

“When did you in this country in 2023 hear about service passports being sold? The video you are referring to is a regular passport, where there are intermediaries, goro boys. Did you ever hear in this country goro boys selling service passports?

“All we have ever known in this country, when it comes to goro boys at passport offices that when you are going to file they take you additional money and then they will follow up for you and then they will fasten the process. That is what Ghana has been used to.

“Only you and your government, you came to office. Now you have escalated this from goro boys actually helping with speeding up your process to giving them diplomatic passports and service passports. And you want to use that to equalize? How does this make sense?” he added.