UN-Passport Syndicate In Lebanon Busted.

ONE Senior Officer of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has been dismissed and two others interdicted for their alleged involvement in an illegal trading of United Nations (UN) passports while on UN Mission in Lebanon.

The two senior officers, whose names are being withheld, are currently under close arrest while the dismissed officer’s name was given as Major Ben Akibatey.


According to sources close to the GAF Headquarters, the three officers took fees and illegally offered their passports and those of some junior personnel to Lebanese and Ghanaians searching for greener pastures in Lebanon to enable them to cross the border from Lebanon to Israel.


The source said those involved in the alleged passport scandal give their passports and ID cards to unauthorised people, lead them to cross the border and then collect their documents back.


It said overtime, the activities of the group became known to the Israeli authorities who complained to the UN Headquarters that people, claiming to be its peacekeepers cross the border and thus get involved in all kinds of activities.


The source said the UN became vigilant and began monitoring personnel on its mission to ensure that any such person caught in that act was arrested and brought to task.


The source said on September 25, 2001, a group of people using passports and ID cards of soldiers serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were arrested trying to cross the border from Lebanon to Israel.

It said when they were arrested, it was found out that their passports and ID cards bore different names.


The source said when they were screened, it was realised that two of them, suspected to be the leaders, were military personnel from Ghana serving with UNIFIL.


It said they were immediately handed over to the commanding officer of the Ghana Battalion at Al Qaranis in Lebanon and were subsequently repatriated to Ghana.


The source said Major Akibatey had earlier on been arrested for the same offence. He was, therefore, repatriated, court marshalled and dismissed from the GAF.


When contacted, the Director of the Public Relations Department of the Ghana Armed Forces, Lt Col. Worlanyo Nibo, confirmed the story but declined to give the identities of the other officers involved.