Foreign Affairs Ministry to be dragged to Parliament over unauthorized release

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has served notice that the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament may drag the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Parliament over the Nigeria security issues.

According to him, it will be in the best interest of the Ministry if they come out right with the true situation.

“The foreign affairs committee is going to take this matter up. We will be looking into it and we will be demanding some answers. We need to know exactly what the true situation is because this is untidy, this is messy and you cannot downplay the consequences of things like this,” Mr. Ablakwa stated on the Morning Starr Thursday November 17, 2022.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said the travel advisory published on Wednesday, November 16 2022 advising against non-essential travel to Abuja was unauthorized.

“The Ministry is not aware of any threat targeted at Ghanaians who continue to live in harmony with their Nigerian brothers and sisters,” the Ministry reiterated.

However, Mr. Ablakwa questioned the development adding that these are major concerns that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have to answer when they are invited to parliament.

“We are concerned that, if the first statement was unauthorized, why are we not being told that there is an internal investigation? We are concerned about the fact that the ministry is not telling us the steps they are putting in place to solve this issue to prevent another from happening in the future.

“We are also concerned about the real facts, what really is the truth. We want to inquire into that. Is it really as we are being told in the second statement, that in the case of an unauthorized statement some official at the ministry of foreign affairs who puts out a statement without approval, without authority? Given the green light, who is that person, we want to know,” he added.

The lawmaker, therefore, demanded that the ministry come out to clarify things and put a name to the unauthorized viral statement.

“If people at the ministry can just be issuing an unauthorized statement, then what is problematic about a statement from the foreign ministry that they don’t put any name? There is no official who owns it so you don’t really know who to hold accountable,” he added.