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Ghanaian MPs hit out at 'indecent' Jon Benjamin
Some Member of Parliament have said that the letter on the alleged visa fraud from the UK High Commissioner to Ghana addressed to the Speaker of Parliament was unnecessary.
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The first deputy Speaker of Parliament Joe Osei Owusu described him as one bereft of “decency and propriety.”
Speaking to Accra-based Starr FM he said the letter to parliament was unnecessary since they were private travels.
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“I think that that High Commissioner in so many instances has acted in a way that in my view transcends the bounds of decency and propriety.”
“These are personal travel arrangements. I believe strongly that if any of them took the matter up to appeal, some of those things may be overturned,” he added.
In a related development the MP for Tamale North Alhassan Suhuyini accused Jon Benjamin of deliberately leaking the letter he wrote to the Speaker of Parliament.
“Jon Benjamin is a media freak. And for me he is a very example of how not to be a diplomat. I don’t think that his ways and operations since he got to this country and even if you read about his dealings in other countries that he has been has been very diplomatic and that is where I have a problem.”
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“Even if you look at the letter that he wrote to the Speaker that has been leaked, you will find a certain arrogance and disrespect to the sovereignty of Ghana. Why does he think…if you read the letter that it is such a big privilege and…honour to give visas to Ghanaian parliamentarians to go to the UK. I mean who wants to go to the UK if you have no business there?” he quizzed.
“…Because of that colonial mindset that they are doing us a favour by giving us visas and so the visas will be given to us subject on good behaviour. I mean that arrogance in that letter is unacceptable,” he added.
READ ALSO: We're still compiling list of former MPs with diplomatic passports - Minister to UK Gov't
Their responses come after the UK High Commissioner Jon Benjamin wrote a letter to the Speaker of Parliament citing three sitting members of parliament and a former member of parliament in an alleged visa fraud using their diplomatic passports.
According to the commission, the MPs used an unauthorised person (a goro boy) and their diplomatic passports to apply for visas for some individuals who travelled to the United Kingdom and did not return as stipulated by their visas.
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They are Richard Acheampong, NDC MP for Bia East in the Western region (NDC), Joseph Benhazin Dahah, NPP MP for Ntotroso in the Bono Ahafo region, Johnson Kwaku Adu, NPP MP for Ahafo Ano South West in the Ashanti region and George Boakye, former MP for Asunafo South in the Bono Ahafo region.
The High Commission said it had restructured its visa application rules in view of the current development.
The Commission said that it will “will henceforth only entertain and prioritize 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.”
The Parliament has opened an investigation into the complaint. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, has stated that they stand to lose their Diplomatic Passports if found culpable.
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