Accra Mayor Detained In Columbia

...Still A US Citizen?

The Mayor of Accra, Alfred Okoe Vanderpuye, was a subject of a diplomatic row recently when he and other members of a government delegation, led by Vice President John Dramani Mahama, were traveling to the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.

Mr. Vanderpuye was held in the Columbian capital, Bogota, for several hours by immigration officials in that country over his traveling documents.

This was due to the fact that he did not have a visa which could enable him to travel to Sao Paulo aside the claim that he was using his United States passport to travel on the ticket of the Ghanaian government.

Another minister in the delegation had to work extra hard, making frantic efforts to save the Mayor from further embarrassment after his virtual detention at Bogota.

The said minister was communicating between Sao Paulo and Accra to get the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to obtain freedom for the Mayor who was held within the confines of the airport by the immigration officials.

Other members of the delegation were compelled by the prevailing circumstance to leave Dr Vanderpuye in the hands of the Colombian authorities, and headed for Sao Paulo without him. The Mayor himself has admitted running into problems with the Columbian authorities when he got there.

He told Daily Guide in an interview yesterday that he used his US passport because if he had used his Ghanaian passport, he would have needed a visa to Brazil. He only had a visa to travel to Columbia.

It is therefore not clear whether the Mayor was denied a visa by the Brazilian embassy in Accra or he just thought he could travel with his US passport into that country without a visa.

Also mind-boggling is the Mayor’s decision to travel with a US passport on the ticket of a Ghana government-sponsored trip. He noted that the Ghanaian authorities in Columbia eventually managed to secure him a visa and he later boarded a flight to join his colleagues in Sao Paulo after about 11 hours of a nightmarish wait in Bogota.

Although the delegation has since returned home to Ghana, the bitter memories of the diplomatic embarrassment would haunt the Mayor for some time to come. This is not the first time the Accra Mayor is encountering nationality challenges.

He encountered similar difficulties when he was proposed for appointment by President Mills, since he was said to be an American citizen and therefore unfit to hold public office as Mayor of Accra. He is still holding on to his American citizenship.

The issue dragged on for some time till his employers, the President and even the National Security, ignored all agitations and made sure he sailed through.

The latest issue thus revives the question of whether or not Dr Vanderpuye, who from all indications wields the passports of two countries, Ghana and the United States, can serve in a public office, since the Ghanaian Constitution bars people with dual citizenship from holding public office unless otherwise renounced.