Ablakwa accepted US deportees to reverse visa sanctions over diplomatic blunder – Rev. Ntim Fordjour

Ranking Member on Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, has accused Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa of violating Ghana’s Constitution by accepting deportees from the United States without parliamentary approval.

The Assin South MP alleged that the decision was a desperate attempt to appease Washington and reverse visa restrictions imposed on Ghana following what he described as Ablakwa’s earlier “diplomatic faux pas.”

In a social media post on Saturday, September 27, Rev. Fordjour criticised the government for focusing on repairing its image abroad while neglecting pressing security concerns at home.

He pointed out that some 23,000 refugees displaced by the Gbinyiri conflict remain stranded and at risk of radicalisation in neighbouring countries, yet no comprehensive plan has been laid out for their reintegration.

According to him, the government’s acceptance of deportees, whom even their home countries had rejected, was purely transactional and aimed at regaining favour with the United States.

“When we pointed them to the transactional acceptance of US deportees as a gesture and condition precedent (among other offers) to ‘clean’ their diplomatic faux pas with the US government, which attracted avoidable visa sanctions on Ghana, they denied,” he wrote.

Rev. Fordjour stressed that events have vindicated his position, noting that the US reversed its visa restrictions on Ghana shortly after the deportees were accepted.

He further accused the government of using the country as a “dumping ground” in violation of constitutional provisions and suggested that Ablakwa rushed the process to showcase progress in Ghana-US relations during the UN General Assembly.

“This is why they couldn’t wait till November for Parliament to reconvene in order to properly lay the deportation agreement for proper scrutiny and consequential approval or otherwise,” he stated.

Rev. Fordjour concluded with a sharp warning: “You see the price you pay when propagandists lead sensitive diplomatic pursuits of a highly esteemed country?”

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