National Security must probe deported journalists – Hamid

Information Minister Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid has entreated the National Security to investigate the deportation of some 50 supposed Ghanaian journalists who travelled to Australia with the country’s delegation to cover the Commonwealth Games.

The so-called journalists were caught after failing to answer basic sports questions posed by Australian officials. Most of them did not also have basic journalistic tools on them.

The Sports Ministry and the National Sports Authority (NSA) have been accused of facilitating the acquisition of the visas as the travel documents presented by the affected individuals were genuine even though they did not appear to be journalists.

Commenting on the development, Dr Abdul-Hamid told Executive Breakfast Show host Moro Awudu on Class91.3FM on Thursday, 5 April that: “We need to find out and national security needs to do an investigation to find out how these people landed there. The Sports Minister will give a full statement about that but he has denied it flatly that it is not in the purview of the GOC”.

He indicated that he has issued “several press statements about connection people who recruit people ostensibly to take them abroad and so on. So, people just ought to realise that they ought to stop paying connection men to take them because I have called the Sports Minister who is in Australia, I spoke to him about 3am and as far as he is concerned, the Sports Ministry or Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) hasn’t taken any people who are not journalists to Australia”.

Some of the affected people said they were charged GHS15,000 and GHS22,000 in order to help them secure visas to Australia.