GIS Officer answers questions on Bawku Central MP's passports

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - An Assistant Director of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Mr Nolasco Nyeidu, on Friday said the travelling documents issued to Adamu Daramani, the embattled Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, by authorities in the United Kingdom could be documents issued to persons with asylum or refugee status. According to the witness, travelling document issued to persons with asylum or refugee status bore some special codes.

He did not state whether travelling documents issued to the MP by UK authorities bore the special code.

Answering questions under cross-examination by defence counsel, Mr Yonni Kulendi, witness said the Burkinabe passport of the accused could "technically" be termed as a travelling document not a passport. He explained that asylum seekers could be termed as such when they approached identified organizations such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

He said different types of travelling documents were used by the travelling public.

This include are aliens passport, Laissez-pass=E9, Refugee and Emergency Travelling certificates.

Giving the procedural requirements of obtaining a Ghanaian passport, witness mentioned a birth certificate with place and date of birth of the applicant as well as the nationality of the parents of the applicants.

Mr Nyiedu said he could not tell the basic requirements of obtaining other countries' passports but pointed out that one of the basic requirements of obtaining passports generally was that the applicant should be a citizen of a state.

Daramani, aka Adamu Daramani-Sakande, aka Adamou Sakande, a security management specialist, is facing nine counts, including being a prohibited immigrant and forgery of travelling certificates. Other charges are false declaration for office, perjury, deceiving public officer, unauthorized voting and other registration offences. Daramani has pleaded not guilty and the court presided over by Mr. Justice Charles Quist admitted him to bail in the sum of GH¢10,000 with surety.

The case of the state read in court stated that in 2008, after the Presidential and Parliament election, information got to the complainant Mr Sumaila Biebil, a cattle herdsman in Bawku, that the accused, who won the Bawku Central seat on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party, had multiple nationalities.

As part of Mr Biebil's civil responsibility, he noticed that Daramani had violated the law and taken the whole country for a ride. The complainant, therefore, reported to the authorities and investigations revealed that accused had multiple nationality. The prosecutor said investigations had revealed that the accused had a Burkinabe passport number C10098625, which was issued in November 1999 and would expire in September 2009.

According to him, the accused who was a Burkinabe, travelled on the said passport to Ghana on March 19, 2004 and departed on March 30, same year.

The prosecution said it would also lead evidence to show that accused also possessed and owned a United Kingdom passport number 094442650 on which he travelled to Ghana and arrived in the country in December 2005 and sought and obtained a Ghanaian Entry Visa with the Ghana High Commission in London.

In furtherance to this, the prosecution said it would prove to the court how the accused, when returning to Ghana in 2007, managed to get a Ghanaian passport, thereby evading and abusing the county's electoral system and laws.

In addition, the prosecution said, the accused used the same representation to get his constituents to nominate him as parliamentary candidate, and was accepted, thereby making them to believe that he was a Ghanaian.

In the same vain, he filed all the requisite forms indicating that he was a Ghanaian. The prosecution pointed out that Article 94 (2) of the 1992 Constitution, forbids aliens from contesting elections in the country. The matter has been adjourned to August 28.