By Stanley Assor
The Committee that Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, set up to investigate the Service passport racketeering scheme at the Ministry is said to be winding down its work and will in the coming days present its report.
Ahead of this, it is emerging that a confession by one Ibrahim Walle, that he forged the signature of the Chief Director at the Ministry, Ambassador Khadija Iddrisu, when she was the Acting Director of Passports, will be central to the report.
This same confession is also key to understanding how the passport racketeering scheme, which traces back to 2023, was run.
Meanwhile, the same confession is said to exonerative of the interdicted Acting Director of Passports, Mahama Yahaya Amantana, because he was not around when the Service passport issuance that has led to the scandal, happened.
As The New Republic earlier reported, Ibrahim Walle, is the main accomplice of Alhassan Sumani, aka Samini, the ‘goro boy’ who was officially employed into the Foreign Affairs Ministry in 2024 by Akufo-Addo government appointees, as a token of appreciation for helping some appointees make thousands of cedis from the passport racketeering business.
According to sources, the details of Walle’s confession entails the rtevelation that he practiced for several weeks in order to forge the signature of the Chief Director to circumvent official procedures and secure Service Passports for persons who were not qualified to obtain them.
Highly placed sources familiar with the committee’s findings have told The New Republic that Walle’s confession is one of the major revelations contained in the report, which is expected to provide a detailed account of how the passport racketeering operation was organised and executed.
The report is also expected to establish the relationship between Walle and Samini, the junior Foreign Service officer identified as the alleged mastermind of the scheme and described in earlier petitions as a former ‘goro boy’ employed by the previous NPP government.
Walle is alleged to have worked closely with Samini in the fraudulent passport operation, helping to facilitate the processing of Service Passports through forged official documents.
According to sources, Walle did not simply forge the Chief Director’s signature on impulse, he spent weeks practising and perfecting the signature to make the forged documents appear authentic.
Meanwhile, Samini, used his position as a junior staff at the Ministry to secret letterheads from the Chief Director’s office to Walle, on which the latter then forged the Chief Director’s signature to facilitate the issuance of the travel documents.
Dr. Sammy Ayeh, a Presidential staffer, has been corroborating the information available to The New Republic. Speaking on Accra based TV3, he revealed that Walle named all the people involved in the scheme in his confession.
“He said that they got the letter, the letterhead of the chief director, and all the people involved in this whole activity. He made sure that Sumana Alhassan was the one in charge of making sure that he got the letterhead so that they could forge the signatures and issue it to the passport office to get it,” Dr. Ayeh said.
An audio recording of the alleged confession is said to be in the possession of the investigators and is expected to form part of the evidence underpinning the committee’s findings.
The revelation provides an important insight into the alleged mechanics of the passport racketeering operation; particularly how official authority was allegedly impersonated to bypass established administrative procedures.
Another potentially significant revelation contained in the forthcoming report concerns the whereabouts of Amantana at the time the Chief Director’s signature was allegedly forged.
Apparently, Amantana was outside Ghana when the forgery took place. This revelation is particularly important because Amantana was among two officials interdicted by the Ministry following the preliminary investigations.
Although he reportedly developed a close working relationship with Samini after the latter joined the Ministry, the alleged confession by Walle and the information about Amantana’s absence from the country could be significant in assessing his culpability.
The forthcoming report is also expected to provide further insight into the activities of Samini, who is alleged to have operated as a goro boy before securing employment at the Foreign Affairs Ministry under the previous NPP administration.
As The New Republic has previously reported, Samini, whose full name is Alhassan Sumani, allegedly secured his appointment into the Ministry in November 2024 as a reward for helping insiders generate thousands of cedis from the passport racketeering business.
Highly placed sources have alleged that his recruitment was orchestrated by officials within the Ministry who had benefited from his activities as an unauthorised middleman facilitating passport acquisitions.
Before his recruitment, Samini operated outside the formal passport administration system, connecting clients seeking travel documents through unofficial channels.
He is said to have worked closely with Walle, who allegedly helped prepare the fraudulent documents required to secure Service Passports for ineligible applicants.
His recruitment into the Ministry on November 29, 2024, reportedly transformed him from an external intermediary into an insider with access to the passport administration system.
The alleged activities of the network, however, are believed to have continued after his recruitment.
The scandal came to light following two petitions received by the Ministry, the first of which was submitted on October 8, 2026, by a prominent Ghanaian pastor and his wife.
The petitioner alleged that US$29,000 had been paid in 2023 to secure Service Passports for persons who were not qualified to obtain them.
A second petitioner claimed to have paid US$5,000 in 2026 for similar purposes.
One of the petitioners specifically complained about Samini’s failure to secure the promised Service Passports despite an agreement dating back to 2023.
“I respectfully write to petition your respectable office concerning one Alhassan Sumani, also known as Samini, in respect of his failure to secure Service Passports for me, which he agreed to secure since 2023. I wish to bring this matter to your attention for the necessary investigations and appropriate action.”
Following receipt of the first petition, Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa constituted a five-member investigative committee on October 13, 2026, to investigate the allegations.
Ambassador Alexander Grant chairs the committee, with Ambassador Francis Danti Kotia, Madam Caroline Oppong Ntiri, Jeswuni Abudu, Audrey Abayage and Nana Yaa Wadee serving as members.
Dr Ayeh previously outlined the speed with which the Minister initiated the investigation.
“This is a minister who receives a petition on 8th October. By 9th October, he has set up a committee to investigate the matter. By 13th October, witnesses have started speaking on the matter,” he said.
He added that an audio recording of Walle’s alleged confession existed and that the committee’s report was expected to be published the following week.
Meanwhile, the Ministry has cancelled 10 Service Passports allegedly issued illegally to individuals who did not qualify for the travel documents.
In a statement issued on Sunday, November 8, 2026, the Ministry disclosed that preliminary investigations had established that the passports were issued between January 2023 and August 2026 through an organised passport-for-sale arrangement.
The affected passports have been flagged internationally, while efforts are underway to locate their holders.
The individuals identified are Richard Sakyi Apenteng, Augustina Agyei Boateng, Juliet Amankwa, Rebecca Agyeiwaa, Prince Ahensah, Maybel Ahensah, Twumasi Francis Kwame, Gyabaah Anthony, Frederick Ennin and Bosompem Richard.
The Ministry confirmed the interdiction of Amantana and Samini and said the two officials had been referred to the Ghana Police Service for further investigations and possible prosecution.
It stressed that the investigations concerned Service Passports and not Diplomatic Passports, adding that all persons found culpable would be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
The committee’s report, expected in the coming days, is therefore anticipated to provide a more comprehensive account of the alleged syndicate, the roles played by its members and the circumstances surrounding the fraudulent issuance of the travel documents.