New Patriotic Party (NPP) National Vice Chairman Henry Nana Boakye, popularly known as Nana B, has denied claims that he asked Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to allow him to retain his service passport.
Speaking in an interview on Adom FM, Mr Boakye said his only request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was for assistance to transfer existing visas from his former service passport to his ordinary passport.
He insisted that he understood it was not possible to retain the service passport after the directive requiring its surrender, adding that he complied with the order before the deadline.
“That is a lie. I never asked Ablakwa to allow me to retain my service passport because I knew it was not possible. All I wanted was to have my existing visas transferred to my ordinary passport,” he said.
Nana B explained that he surrendered the document shortly before the deadline after the authorities began publishing the names of people who had not complied with the directive.
He said he subsequently requested a formal letter from the Ministry to facilitate the transfer of his visas.
According to him, Bosome Freho MP Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh followed up on the request at the Minister’s personal request but discontinued the process after being informed that the letter was not ready. Mr Boakye said he eventually applied for new visas instead.
The NPP vice chairman also rejected any suggestion that he had held a diplomatic passport, insisting that the document in question was a service passport.
“I have never held a diplomatic passport, so I am surprised they are making such claims. What I had was a service passport,” he added.
He further criticised the Majority Caucus for displaying the biographical data page of his former service passport, which he said was in the custody of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Nana B also described the Minister’s handling of the matter as immature, arguing that the controversy misrepresented the purpose of his request.
The dispute has sparked debate over the circumstances surrounding the surrender of the service passport and the request to transfer existing visas to an ordinary passport.
