Foreign Ministry cancels 10 Service Passports and interdicts two officers. Its own list dates 4 to 2023 and 6 to 2026

On 8 November 2026, Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under President Mahama's NDC government, published a statement cancelling 10 Service Passports that it says were issued to people who did not qualify, after alleged payments to a syndicate. It interdicted the Acting Director of Passports, Mahama Yahaya Amantana, and a junior Foreign Service Officer, Alhassan Sumani, and referred both to the police. The ministry says the Director of Passports for the 2023 period, Ambassador Mohammed Habib Idris, who has retired, will also be investigated and sanctioned only if found culpable.

These are allegations. As of 8 November, QMS had found no report of any charge and no court ruling against anyone in this matter. QMS found no public response from Mr Amantana, Mr Sumani or Ambassador Idris as of 8 November 2026 and will carry any response.

The ministry's statement says the scheme "predates the current administration". Its own list gives an issue date for each of the 10 passports. Four are dated 3 January (two), 31 January and 2 February 2023, under President Akufo-Addo's NPP government. Six are dated 28 May 2026 (two) and 11 August 2026 (four), under President Mahama's NDC government. The list has no passport issued in 2024 or 2025. QMS is not publishing the holders' names.

What the ministry says happened

A Service Passport is for public officers travelling on state business, according to GhanaWeb's account of the 1967 passports decree as cited by the Minority. The Minority says the passport gives visa-free entry to 59 countries.

According to the ministry's statement, one petitioner claims to have paid US$29,000 in 2023 and another claims to have paid US$5,000 in 2026. The statement says the first petition came on 8 October 2026 and that a committee was set up on 13 October, five days later.

The statement says the petitions name Mr Sumani as the chief architect and as a middleman in 2023. It also says he was recruited into the Foreign Service on 29 November 2024, eight days before the 7 December election, under the NPP government.

The statement names Ambassador Idris as Director of Passports for "the 2023 period in issue". The Ghana Mission in Kuwait's biography says he became Ambassador to Kuwait on 29 September 2023.

The bonus

Around 15 August 2026, days after the date on the last four passports, the Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, announced a bonus for passport staff at the Passport Head Office, 3News and The Vaultz News reported. He cited a Ghana Statistical Service survey which, he said, ranked the passport service the most transformed and least corrupt public institution in the country. That is what the Minister said; this report makes no assessment of the survey.

The Minority's motion

Hours after the ministry's statement, the NPP Minority held a press conference and announced a motion for a parliamentary ad hoc committee. As announced, it covers approvals from 7 January 2025, the day the current government took office. A start date of 7 January 2025 leaves out the four passports dated 2023. QMS found no reported reason for that start date. Outlets gave different days for when the motion would be filed, and QMS has not confirmed that it has been filed.

The Minority says about 300 Ghanaians have travelled on such passports. Its stated basis is unnamed sources, in its words "our sources". The ministry has confirmed 10.

The Minority also says diplomatic passports are being sold. On 3 November, Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Ranking Member on Foreign Affairs, said so in Parliament, and the Speaker ordered him out after a dispute over withdrawing the remark, 3News reported. Accounts differ on whether he withdrew it. The ministry's statement says no evidence has emerged so far of diplomatic passports being sold.

The letters

The Minority has also produced letters dated 1, 4 and 5 June and 6 and 7 August 2026, GhanaWeb and Graphic Online reported. As described in those reports, the letters were signed by the ministry's Chief Director on the Minister's authority and approved Service Passports for people described as public officials. These are Minority exhibits. QMS has not verified them and does not report that the Minister signed them.

The Minority says some of the jobs described do not exist, and that one person is given one job in a letter of 1 June and a different job in a letter of 4 June.

The ministry's 27-paragraph statement, published before the Minority's press conference, does not address the letters. Two of the letters are dated 6 and 7 August, and four passports on the ministry's list are dated 11 August. QMS has not established whether those letters relate to those passports.

What is not yet known

In the material QMS has read, four questions remain open: who approved the six passports dated 2026, whether the August letters match the August passports, why the motion starts in January 2025, and the basis of the figure of 300.

The WHAT HAPPENED? episode Start From Line One reads the ministry's list line by line.