…Reject Plot to Discredit Gov’t Over Evacuation Payments
…Insist Every Evacuee Received Full GH¢5,500 Package
By Gifty Boateng & Prince Ahenkorah
Ghanaians recently evacuated from South Africa following xenophobic attacks have challenged the Minority in Parliament and the Multimedia Group to provide evidence to support allegations that some returnees were not paid the full financial assistance promised by the government.
At an emotionally charged press conference in Accra on Monday, October 26, 2026, representatives of the returnees expressed disappointment that their ordeal had become a subject of political controversy months after their evacuation, and alleged that some members of the group were contacted and coached by individuals associated with the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to speak against the government.
The controversy follows questions raised by the Minority over the reported GH¢49.72 million expenditure incurred by the government in evacuating 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa.
The debate intensified last week after the Multimedia Group reported discrepancies in documents it had examined concerning the evacuation exercise and the financial assistance provided to beneficiaries.
Speaking on Newsfile on Saturday, the head of the Multimedia Group’s research desk, Isaac Kofi Agyei, said the team had identified five major anomalies in the records reviewed, including duplicate names in the list of evacuees, missing signatures against some payments and instances where beneficiaries allegedly did not receive the full GH¢5,500 package comprising reintegration and transportation allowances.
Agyei said the research team had also contacted some evacuees who reportedly confirmed receiving either GH¢500 or GH¢5,000 instead of the full amount, and questioned the reliability of the government’s expenditure calculations if the number of beneficiaries and the amounts paid could not be fully reconciled.
But addressing the press conference, Michael Addo, leader of the Aggrieved South Africa Evacuees, said the group was determined to tell the truth about the assistance they received, regardless of political affiliations.
“We are aware that some members of our group have received calls and coaching to speak against the government, but our conscience will not allow us to do so, even if we support the opposition party rather than the government of the day,” Mr Addo said.
He claimed that attempts were made to persuade some returnees to portray the government’s intervention negatively, but insisted the group would not allow “petty politics” to distort their experience.
The evacuees also rejected claims circulating in the public domain that some beneficiaries received only the GH¢500 transportation allowance while others received only the GH¢5,000 reintegration grant.
According to Mr Addo, every person on the evacuation list received the full GH¢5,500 support package, made up of GH¢5,000 in reintegration assistance and GH¢500 for transportation, upon their arrival in Ghana.
“It is only fair that we state the facts and refuse to allow petty politics to make us liars. The claims that some people received only the GH¢500 transportation allowance while others received only the GH¢5,000 reintegration allowance are all false. We want to state for the record that we all received the package on our respective dates of arrival,” he said.
Mr Addo criticised what he described as the public humiliation of returnees, arguing that their traumatic experiences were being overlooked amid demands for accountability, and maintained that journalists who witnessed the returnees’ arrival at the airport could provide information about the circumstances surrounding the distribution of the money.
He called for an end to what he described as baseless attacks against the evacuees and the government, which he said had responded to their plight.
“We are here to seek answers and demand an immediate end to the baseless attacks on us and the government that was sympathetic towards us,” he added.
Addo also expressed gratitude to the government for facilitating their return, noting that Ghanaians had experienced xenophobic attacks in South Africa for years without, in his view, receiving similar assistance.
“We have experienced xenophobia for many years, but this is the first time a government has taken our plight into account and come to our rescue,” he said, maintaining that efforts to ensure accountability should not undermine the dignity and well-being of the people who were evacuated.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has also rejected the allegations of underpayment, insisting that all 1,964 evacuees received the approved GH¢5,500 assistance package.
Speaking during an engagement with the Ghanaian community in Ottawa, Canada, while on an official working visit, Ablakwa said the ministry had not received any complaints about the payments in more than four months since the evacuation exercise began.
“For more than four months since the evacuation commenced, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not received a single complaint,” he said.
He explained that the evacuees had been informed before leaving South Africa that they would receive GH¢5,500 each, a message he said was repeated upon their arrival in Ghana.
According to the minister, beneficiaries were given two envelopes at the airport and encouraged to open them to verify the amounts received. He added that journalists and bloggers were present during the distribution, with some recording beneficiaries counting their money.
Ablakwa argued that the circumstances surrounding the payments, coupled with the absence of complaints to the ministry, raised questions about the allegations.
“These stories do not add up. And they are calculated at probably discouraging us from always stepping in and rescuing Ghanaians from harm’s way,” he said.
Although he acknowledged that he did not personally distribute the money, the minister expressed confidence in the officials who handled the exercise, including personnel from the ministry’s Finance Bureau, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and National Security.
He said he did not believe the officials would take advantage of vulnerable Ghanaians who had experienced trauma abroad.
Ablakwa also described the assistance as a significant intervention, saying it was the first time evacuated Ghanaians had received both reintegration support and a transportation allowance.
Despite the controversy, he pledged to remain committed to protecting the welfare and rights of Ghanaians living abroad.
“But I give you one assurance that despite all the vilification, I remain fully committed to the welfare, the protection of the dignity and the rights of Ghanaians. I am not discouraged at all,” he said.
The dispute has placed the evacuation expenditure and payments to beneficiaries under renewed scrutiny, with the returnees and the Foreign Affairs Minister maintaining that the full allowances were paid, while the Multimedia Group says its review identified discrepancies requiring clarification.