[ 2017-05-03 ]

Martin Amidu is a former Attorney-General and Minister for Justice

Insults on British High Commissioner over visa fraud shameful


I have read and followed the publications on the
online media since 26th April 2017 in which some
Members of Ghana’s 7th Parliament have made
needless derogatory comments about H.E. Jon
Benjamin, the High Commissioner of the United
kingdom to Ghana for a letter he signed on behalf
of the High Commission in Ghana dated 20th January
2017 and addressed to the Speaker of the Ghanaian
Parliament: “regarding the apparent involvement
of three serving MPs and one former MP in visa
fraud directly affecting the United Kingdom.”

The wrong perception has been created by the
unwarranted attacks on the person and office of
the High Commissioner that by writing that letter
he has brought or facilitated the bringing of the
reputation of the 7th Parliament into disrepute in
the eyes of the sovereign people of Ghana.

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon.
Joseph Osei Owusu (and the person acting as the
Speaker of Parliament in the absence of the
Speaker abroad) is reported to have slammed the
High Commissioner “over the latter’s decision
to expose four Ghananian (sic) MPs for alleged
visa fraud after he exacted penalties against
them.”

The only fact supporting the likelihood that the
High Commissioner personally leaked his letter to
the Speaker appears to be what the First Deputy
Speaker was reported to have told Starr FM the
previous day: “I think that that High
Commissioner in so many instances has acted in
ways that in my view transcends the bounds of
decency and propriety.”

Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is also reported as
having written in his capacity as Ranking Member,
Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament and
chastised the content of the High Commissioner’s
letter and stating categorically that: “Reading
through Jon Benjamin’s letter, however, one
cannot help but notice a rather regrettable
colonial mindset” for proposing a protocol to
guide future applications for visa from MPs
holding diplomatic passports.

Regrettably the criticism of the High Commissioner
by Hon. Ablakwa appears to have been made under
the erroneous assumption that the grant of entry
rights to foreign nationals into any country is a
right and not a mere privilege.

Ablakwa’s criticism of the content of the High
Commissioner’s letter also assumed that the High
Commissioner either personally leaked the letter
or he should not have written it in the first
place when he says: “Even though many of us have
had concern about the modus operandi and
non-diplomatic tendencies of the top-most British
diplomat in Accra, I will not advocate hostility
or reciprocal action on British MPs….”

Other MPs have further been reported to have
described the High Commissioner as a “media
freak”, “a very example of how not to be a
diplomat”, “a media whore”, etc… The
perception is thus disingenuously created by some
Members of Parliament of the 7th Parliament that
the High Commissioner personally leaked the letter
to bring the reputation of the 7th Parliament into
disrepute without providing any direct linkage
between the leakage and the High Commissioner
whatsoever.

The insults coming from MPs from both sides of
Parliament give the impression that Parliament is
more hysterical about its reputation being brought
into disrepute through the exposure of
dishonourable conduct by its members rather than
maintaining the honour and dignity of the
institution of Parliament through a transparent,
fair and credible constitutional process of
dealing with members who bring the reputation of
the institution into disrepute.

But no institutional reputation can be achieved by
covering up or insulting, or citing or threatening
to cite whistleblowers or potential whistleblowers
for contempt or abuse.

The institutional reputation of Parliament is
endangered when a majority of citizens, civil
society organizations, and foreign embassies and
other missions in Ghana perceive attempts to
maintain Parliament’s integrity as a mere window
dressing.

In any case, how is our Whistleblowers Act to
function if MPs cannot tolerate the leakage of a
simple letter stating perceived misconduct and
suspicion of crime on the part of some members of
Parliament?

When one reads the letter of the British High
Commission to the Speaker dated 20th January 2017
carefully one cannot escape the conclusion that it
did not call for any attack or insult on his
person or office by anybody in the 7th Parliament
of Ghana.

In writing the letter the British High Commission
noted that: “the powerful words in your
impressive inaugural address as Speaker, to the
effect that, for Members of Parliament, holding a
Diplomatic Passport is both a privilege and
responsibility which should not be abused; and
that those who abuse that trust would be
appropriately dealt with.” The letter was thus
just a reaction or response to an undertaking made
by the Speaker himself in his inaugural address.

Did the Speaker at the time of making his
inaugural address know that some members of
Parliament in the previous Parliaments had abused
the privileges accorded them in the issuance to
them of Diplomatic Passports?

The events narrated in the British High
Commission’s letter of 20th January 2017 had
occurred at various times within the life of the
5th and 6th Parliaments of Ghana which had ceased
to exist under Article 113 of the 1992
Constitution. The former (NDC) MP’s application
for visa for himself and his daughter were granted
on 14/9/2012 under the 5th Parliament.

There is no allegation that this former MP used a
Diplomatic Passport to apply for the visa. The
second (NPP) MP for Bia East’s applications with
passport number DX001490 for visa were granted on
10/12/2015 under the 6th Parliament.

The third (NPP) MP for Ntotroso’s applications
with passport number DX001459 were issued on
11/04/16 under the 6th Parliament. The fourth
(NPP) MP for Ahafo Ano South West’s applications
with passport number DX002267 for visa were
granted on 07/07/2016 under the 6th Parliament.

Whatever offences under the laws of Ghana each of
the four Members of Parliament under the 5th and
6th Parliaments might have committed were done
before the 7th Parliament was inaugurated this
year.

Consequently, I do not think that the 7th
Parliament has any jurisdiction to exact any
punishment from the one former (NDC) MP under the
5th Parliament and the three (NPP) MPs under the
6th Parliament for offences committed in previous
Parliaments that have already been dissolved by
law. The three (NPP) MPs of the 6th Parliament now
serving in the 7th Parliament were elected thereto
and took the oath under a different mandate which
begun on 7th January 2017.


The dissolution of those Parliaments did not
affect whatever criminal offences involving fraud,
dishonesty or moral turpitude the MPs might have
been suspected of committing outside Parliament
when they were MPs in the 5th and 6th
Parliaments.

Consequently, even though the British High
Commission wrote to the Speaker of Parliament upon
his inaugural undertaking, this matter should have
been disposed of by the Speaker timeously, as he
had no jurisdiction, by referring the High
Commission’s letter to the Ghana Police Service
for investigations in accordance with the laws of
Ghana. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also at
liberty to act administratively under the law
dealing with the issuance of passports and travel
documents.

Unfortunately, for three good months the serious
indictment on the honour and dignity of Members of
Parliament under the 5th and 6th Parliaments were
kept secret from the sovereign people of Ghana
from 20th January 2017 to around 26th April 2017.

When a whistleblower leaked the content of the
letter the High Commissioner who signed the letter
was targeted for shameful insults and name calling
by no less a person than the First Deputy Speaker
and Chairman of the Privileges Committee of
Parliament, and other members of Parliament on the
basis of pure conjecture.

Instead of the Acting Speaker of Parliament and
other members shamelessly insulting the British
High Commissioner for his letter which in my
opinion sought to defend the dignity of the
Parliament established under the 1992
Constitution, Parliament should rather be
explaining to the sovereign people of Ghana why
this matter was not referred to the police for
investigation for three whole months before the
whistleblower blew the whistle to the public.

The explanation from the office of the Speaker
that the matter would be dealt with in accordance
with the law as it affects the integrity and
reputation of Parliament looks belated. It gives
the impression that if the whistleblower had not
blown the whistle this matter may as well have
been covered up or window dressed.


The Government of the United Kingdom and its
Serious Fraud Office (now National Crime Agency)
reported to and made available to the Government
of Ghana documentary evidence of corruption
involving public officers and Ministers of State
in the Mabey and Johnson affairs somewhere in the
year 2009.

The Government of Ghana showed and continues to
show a disinterest to pursue investigations and
possible prosecution of the case even after the
Supreme Court had ruled that the matter could be
investigated even by the Commission for Human
Rights and Administrative Justice.

The Government of the United Kingdom, its High
Commission, and High Commissioner are again
needlessly being insulted and intimidated by some
Members of Parliament simply because a letter
sanctioning and calling attention to the fact that
some Members of Parliament in the 5th and 6th
Parliaments might have abused their privileges and
committed criminal offences in their application
for visa to the High Commission has been leaked by
a whistleblower to the sovereign public.

How do we expect the Government of the United
Kingdom and other foreign Governments from these
experiences to believe that Ghana is committed as
a nation to upholding the principles of probity
and accountability enshrined in our 1992
Constitution?

It is a shame that while the Speaker of Parliament
appears belatedly from abroad to be urging the use
of temperate language in this matter by members of
Parliament his First Deputy Speaker already led
the pack of some of his members to attack the
integrity of the British High Commissioner and his
Government without any just cause.

Ghana clearly has a long way to go to defend the
principles of probity and accountability enshrined
in the Constitution. I accordingly invite fellow
patriotic citizens to join me in condemning the
unwarranted attacks and shameful insults on the
High Commissioner and his Government who only
sought to defend the honour and dignity of
Parliament as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution
by pointing out past misconduct and suspected
crime of some members of Parliament.

Source - Martin A. B. K. Amidu

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