Three Members of Ghana’s Legislature and a former Member of the same lawmaking house have been accused of engaging in alleged visa fraud by British authorities.
The MPs are reported by local media to have perpetrated the fraud using their diplomatic passports.
According to Joy FM, the lawmakers applied for visas for some individuals who travelled to the United Kingdom with used their diplomatic passports.
According to British authorities these persons who succeeded in traveling with these diplomatic passports to the U.K failed to return as stipulated by their visas and lived illegally in the country.
The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin in a letter written to the speaker of Ghana’s parliament, Aaron Mike Ocquaye said “The British High Commission considers the actions [of the MPs] completely unacceptable. In some cases these behaviours may arguably be criminal in nature,”
The letter further stated that the High Commission will “will henceforth only entertain and prioritise requests for visas from MPs, if they are made through the parliamentary protocol office who should verify that there is an official, parliamentary reason for the proposed visit.”
“We take the fraud case seriously, we don’t let it go,” Jon Benjamin told Accra-based Joy FM in an interview.
The MPs cited for this visa fraud are Richard Acheampong, Joseph Benhazin Dahah and Johnson Kwaku Adu. The fourth person who is a former MP is George Boakye. UK visa bans have been imposed on them.
Source: Africafeeds.com
