Deputy Information Minister reacts to Chronicle story

A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has denied reports attributed to him that 375 diplomatic passports have been recalled because of the Wikileaks cables on the drug war in Ghana.

In a statement signed in Accra on Monday, he said the story in an Accra-based newspaper, the Chronicle, were “erroneous, misleading and sensational”.

He said he had indicated that the recall of the 375 passports was a routine exercise carried out at the beginning of the tenure of President John Evans Atta Mills and had nothing to do with the Wikileaks report.

“(However) the Chronicle still went ahead by its headline and paragraphs in the said story to link the diplomatic passport recall to the Wikileaks report.”

Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa said the newspaper also suggested that the recall was “part of efforts by the Atta Mills government to fight against the drug menace in the country” and attributed this to him.

“Again this cannot be true as there would have been no basis for me to criminalize all past holders of diplomatic passports.”

The Deputy Minister also recalled another story in the newspaper last week which claimed he had said former presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor were to be flown in the same helicopter to the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah during the ceremony marking the official commencement of oil production in Ghana and asked the newspaper to correct both publications.

Source: GNA