Ibrahim Mahama guaranteed my first Visa - Afenyo-Markin

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Efutu in the Central region Alexander Afenyo Markin has revealed that brother of former president John Dramani Mahama guaranteed his first traveling visa when he was due to travel to Switzerland as a student at the University of Cape Coast.

According to him, the Swiss Embassy required someone to guarantee them with a letter and a bank account and therefore a friend who took them to Ibrahim Mahama who willingly did it back in 2001.

“As a student, Ibrahim Mahama of Engineers and Planners guaranteed my travel with his bank statement. He didn’t know me, but he wrote on the form that he knew me. We were traveling to Switzerland on a UN programme and the Embassy needed a guarantor”, he said on Joy Fm’s news analysis programme Newsfile on Saturday.

Contributing to the alleged visa fraud involving some lawmakers in the country, he said the fact they guaranteed the visas for some persons meant they knew them juxtaposing that to his.

He however called for a fair hearing for the MPs indicating that the UK High Commissioner ought to have done that before writing the letter to the spear Professor Mike Aron Ocquaye which leaked.

British authorities have cited four Ghanaian lawmakers for alleged visa fraud as they were reported to have used their diplomatic passports through middlemen to apply for visas for some persons who traveled but overstayed during their visits to the UK

Richard Acheampong, MP for Bia East in the Western Region, Joseph Benhazin Dahah, MP for Ntotroso in the Bono Ahafo region, Johnson Kwaku Adu, MP for Ahafo Ano South West, in the Ashanti Region and George Boakye, former MP for Asunafo South in the Bono Ahafo region are said to those who perpetrated the act.

The British High Commission in a correspondence to the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Ocquaye that has been leaked according to a leaked letter, said “The British High Commission considers the actions [of the MPs] completely unacceptable. In some cases these behaviours may arguably be criminal in nature,” the letter said.

It added that given what has transpired, the High Commission will “will henceforth only entertain and prioritise 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.”