Evelyn Ankumah's diplomatic status withdrawn

... Diplomat in her own country
The Mills administration has withdrawn a controversial diplomatic status granted Ms Evelyn Ankumah, Executive Director of the Africa Legal Aid, an NGO, and Managing Director of the Labone-based Working Girls Fitness Centre under the previous NPP administration, which made her a diplomat even in her own home country.

Consequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has written to inform Ms Ankumah of the decision to strip her of her diplomatic status.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Mummuni, told the Gye Nyame Concorde in a chat before he flew out of Accra last week that the decision was taken in the best interest of the nation during efforts by this paper to find out the diplomatic status of Ms Ankumah.

He confirmed that he had issued directives for the CD number used by the lady and a diplomatic passport issued to her by the last administration to be withdrawn.

Efforts to reach Ms Ankumah by press time on the withdrawal of her diplomatic status have proven futile but sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say the letter was delivered to her in the absence of the Foreign Minister last Wednesday.

Ms Ankumah is presently in court with the New Crusading Guide newspaper over the paper's report that her Working Girls Fitness Centre, which sells itself off as a health centre, allegedly serve as a front for sordid carnal pleasures.

Sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggest that the Ministry presently has two petitions before it on cases involving the stripped diplomat in which allegations that she may have waved her diplomatic immunity to escape the clutches of two Ghanaian courts feature prominently.

The Ministry is also said to have begun an internal probe to find out. the circumstances that led to the controversial agreement granting the lady a diplomatic status, making her immune to the court of even her own country.

The agreement between her and the Ministry, sources say, did not have the name of the official of the Ministry who approved the diplomatic immunity. The name of the witness who countersigned is also not on the agreement, making it highly irregular, sources say.

In order not to wash its dirty linen in public, the Ministry quietly sent off a letter to the stripped diplomat last Wednesday, informing her of the withdrawal of her diplomatic status.