Outgoing UK High Commissioner to Ghana Jon Benjamin has denied leaking a confidential letter he wrote to Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament concerning the involvement of three sitting MPs and a former legislator in visa fraud.
“Visas have been a constant issue here, you’re aware of the fuss around a leaked letter that I wrote to the Speaker, leaked by others, not by me, so certain people might have wanted to check that before they launched into their own tirade of insults around that issue,” Mr Benjamin told Citi FM on Monday, 12 June in an interview.
The three MPs and their former colleague were cited in separate alleged visa offences by the UK government and a 10-year visa ban placed on them.
They include: Richard Acheampong, MP for Bia East in the Western Region; Joseph Benhazin Dahah, MP for Asutifi North (Ntotroso) in the Brong Ahafo Region; Johnson Kwaku Adu, MP for Ahafo Ano South West in the Ashanti Region; and George Boakye, former MP for Asunafo South in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The confidential letter said the four MPs violated UK visa regulations on different occasions by either providing false information for their visa applications or facilitating the visas of some relatives who overstayed their visas in the UK.
The letter addressed to Prof Mike Oquaye said: “Administrative measures have been taken to ensure that the Honourable members mentioned here will most likely not be granted visas for the UK within the next 10 years. I should add that the party affiliation of these MPs is, in this context, irrelevant to us: we simply state the facts as we have discovered them.
“We are continuing to investigate whether any other current or former MPs have engaged in similar behaviour and will inform you, if we discover any further such cases.
“Furthermore, the British High Commission has information that points strongly to some of the aforementioned honourable members having used the same unofficial visa agent [also known as a ‘Goro boy’] in their applications, specifically a gentleman called Appiah. We are sure that Mr Speaker shares our view that an institution as respected and vitally important as the Ghanaian Parliament should not be a location where unregistered visa agents approach Honourable Members and act as a conduit for them to participate in visa fraud. The British High Commission will happily cooperate fully with any parliamentary and law enforcement investigation into such agents operating in the vicinity of the Ghanaian Parliament,” the letter added.
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