Former Chief of Staff denies visa fraud allegations

The former Chief of Staff of former President John Dramani Mahama, Mr. Julius Debrah has denied being banned from entering the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and five other European countries over visa fraud.

There have been speculations on social media that Mr Debrah was not only ban from entering the USA but slapped with additional 10-year ban barring him from entering the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands for facilitating the entry of 48 supporters of the then governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) into the USA, as part of government’s delegation to the 2016 United Nations General Assembly.

Reacting to the speculation, Mr Debrah in a statement said throughout his tenure of office, he never personally applied for any visa or got involved in visa acquisition.

“The Chief of Staff does not apply for visas for government delegation when traveling. It's the office of the Director of State Protocol that has that responsibility. And throughout my tenure of office as Chief of Staff, I personally never applied for visa for anybody. And never do I recall ever sending or facilitating the traveling of party supporters with the motive as sojourners. I have never used the office of President to acquire a visa for anybody, not a single person because I never got involved with matters of visas acquisition. Even known drug dealers are not banned from 7 countries, let alone a former Chief of Staff to the President,” he stated.

Mr Debrah added that he usually leave such matters “to my maker,” adding that he has been accused in the past of “receiving over GHS40.5 million from BOST into his private account at Fidelity Bank, purchased bulletproof vehicles for President Nana Akufo-Addo, withdrew the 10 percent deductions from the salaries of former ministers for private purposes, the list can go on and on and on.”