Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has interdicted its Acting Director of Passports and a junior Foreign Service Officer over their alleged involvement in a scheme that issued Service Passports to people who did not qualify for them, Graphic Online reports. The two were named in a ministry statement issued in Accra on November 8, 2026, which said both have been referred to the Ghana Police Service for investigation and possible prosecution.
The suspended officials are Mahama Yahaya Amantana, the Acting Director of Passports, and Alhassan Sumani, a Foreign Service Officer. According to the statement, Sumani was identified in petitions as the alleged main organiser of the operation and had worked as a "goro boy" in 2023 before joining the Foreign Service on November 29, 2024.
Why it matters
Service Passports are official documents issued to a limited category of public officials and other eligible holders, not to the general public. The ministry's preliminary findings allege that people outside that category obtained them from 2023 onward after making illegal payments to a group running the scheme. That raises questions about how a restricted document could be obtained for cash over a period of years inside the very ministry that controls it.
The case also reaches beyond the two officers. The ministry said Ambassador Mohammed Habib Idris, who was Director of Passports during the 2023 period under scrutiny and has since retired, will also face investigation by the security services and will be sanctioned if he is found responsible. The ministry framed that step as a matter of fairness and equal treatment.
What the petitions claimed
The ministry acted after receiving two petitions about irregular Service Passport issuance. According to the statement, the petitioner from 2023 said he paid US$29,000 to those involved, while the petitioner from 2026 said he paid US$5,000. Asaase Radio reported that the ministry had cancelled ten service passports and was investigating an alleged $29,000 deal, while Modern Ghana reported the figure as an alleged $50,000 sale of service passports.
The ministry listed ten people who allegedly received the documents improperly between January 2023 and August 2026. It said all ten passports have been cancelled and can no longer be used, that international partners have been notified, and that the holders are being pursued. Two of them, the statement said, had already used the passports to travel in 2023.
The ministry described the operation as sophisticated and said it began before the current administration took office. It credited tighter scrutiny and a stated zero-tolerance stance on corruption with bringing the alleged organisers to light. It also drew a distinction between document types, saying no evidence has so far shown that Ghana's Diplomatic Passports are being sold and that the investigation concerns Service Passports only.
Political pressure builds
The interdiction has drawn calls for a wider inquiry. GhanaWeb reported that MP Samuel Jinapor pressed for a full-scale investigation following the suspension of the director. Ghana Business News reported that the Majority Leader told Parliament the probe into the sale allegations would be thorough.
The ministry used the statement to point to changes made under Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, including chip-embedded passports that meet ICAO standards, Passport Application Centres in all 16 regions, round-the-clock operations, and a cut in the application fee from GH¢500 to GH¢350. It also cited a Ghana Statistical Service survey that rated Passport Administration as the most transformed and least corrupt public institution in the country.
That survey finding sits awkwardly beside the allegations now under investigation, and critics are likely to press the ministry on how an alleged paid-access scheme could run for roughly three years while the institution was being held up as a model of reform. The ministry's answer, in the statement, is that the scheme predates the current leadership and was uncovered by the diligence it has introduced.
What to watch
The police investigation will determine whether charges follow, and the case against the retired ambassador will test the ministry's promise that rank and status will not shield anyone. Watch for the police to confirm arrests or formal charges, and for Parliament's probe to set out its terms and timetable.
