National Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, popularly known as Nana B, has denied asking Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa for a favour to retain his service passport.
He has accused the Majority in Parliament of using the passport controversy to divert public attention from questions surrounding the GH¢16.4 million allegedly spent on evacuating Ghanaians from South Africa.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Nana B rejected claims by the Majority that Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Nana Asafo-Adjei, was pursuing a personal vendetta against Mr Ablakwa over the passport issue.
The Majority had alleged that Mr Asafo-Adjei’s criticism of the Minister followed his refusal to grant a request for a former NPP national organiser to retain his service passport.
However, Nana B described the allegation as “weak, diversionary, unreasonable and a red herring”, arguing that it was intended to distract from concerns about possible corruption raised by Mr Asafo-Adjei.
He explained that he had held only a service passport, not a diplomatic passport, and surrendered it in compliance with the President’s directive, as announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to Nana B, he had asked Mr Ablakwa for a formal letter to notify embassies that visas in his service passport needed to be transferred to his ordinary passport.
He said the Minister personally asked him to contact Mr Asafo-Adjei to follow up on the letter.
“Okudzeto Ablakwa personally requested that I inform Hon. Asafo Adjei to follow up on the letter, which I did, but after one visit, Hon. Asafo Adjei was informed the letter was not ready; hence, I abandoned it and applied for new visas,” he said.
Nana B maintained that Mr Asafo-Adjei acted at the Minister’s request and did not seek any special favour on his behalf.
“I never requested to retain the passport because doing so would have been unreasonable as a national executive of the opposition party,” Nana B added.
He also questioned how the Majority obtained and displayed the biographical data page of his service passport, which he said was in the custody of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Turning to the evacuation expenditure, Nana B accused the Majority of attempting to shield Mr Ablakwa from scrutiny over the GH¢16.4 million.
He argued that Mr Asafo-Adjei’s concerns were based on information submitted by the Minister himself and should not be dismissed as a personal dispute.
“The majority should not take discerning Ghanaians for fools by suggesting that a member of Parliament’s exposition on possible corruption to the tune of GHS16.4 million, based on data submitted by Okudzeto himself, is a personal vendetta,” he said.
Nana B urged the Majority to demand explanations from Mr Ablakwa over what he described as serious inconsistencies in documents relating to the evacuation expenditure.
“President Mahama promised Ghanaians accountability, and the majority should call Okudzeto Ablakwa to answer the serious inconsistencies in the documents submitted regarding the expenditure on the evacuation of citizens,” he said.
The statement did not provide a detailed breakdown of the alleged inconsistencies in the evacuation expenditure.
The claims of possible corruption and the alleged failure to account for the funds remain allegations in Nana B’s statement.
