A former Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Professor Kwamena Ahwoi in 2012 accused the then presidential candidate on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of stealing 45 diplomatic passports.

According to him, the missing diplomatic passports were found in Akufo-Addo’s office when he was not in charge of safeguarding them.

Prof.Ahwoi also wondered how the diplomatic passports got into Akufo-Addo’s office.

With the diplomatic passports, they were allowed to use the VVIP Lounge of the Kotoka International Airport without any security scrutiny.

Read the story orginally published in 2012 by The Herald below.

A former Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Professor Kwamena Ahwoi, under ex-President Rawlings' regime had launched an attack on the Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), asking what the 45 diplomatic passports that got missing were doing in his office when he was not mandated to keep them.

According to Prof. Ahwoi, but for obvious and cunning reasons, the self-acclaimed incorruptible Nana Adoo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is vying to become the President of this country, had no business keeping such valuable properties of the sate when there was someone directly responsible for their safekeeping.

The issue of the missing diplomatic passports from the now-burnt office of Nana Addo, has become an albatross on his neck since one of them was traced to his brother-in-law, Raymond Kwame Amankwa, currently languishing in a Brazilian jail for cocaine trafficking.

Indeed, American diplomatic cables recently released by wikileaks disclosed that the late President Mills revoked 375 diplomatic passports issued by Nana Addo during the Kufuor regime to all manner of persons including pastors, musicians, traders who were not state officials.

With the diplomatic passports, they were allowed to use the VVIP Lounge of the Kotoka International Airport without any security scrutiny.

Meanwhile, an independent report available to The Herald alleged that a certain Sylvia Kitson, who runs a shop in Dzorwulu-Accra and is sexually connected to Raymond Amankwa has also been jailed recently in Brazil, also for drugs.

The former minister, who now lectures at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), was speaking at the campaign launch of the Parliamentary Candidate, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo for the Tema West Constituency at Tema Community Two, last Friday.

Addressing a charged crowd at the Sakasaka Park, Prof. Ahwoi who once served as a Foreign Affairs Minister under Mr. Rawlings, said the NPP flag bearer at the time had no business keeping the diplomatic passports as it was the sole responsibility of the Director of Passport to do that.

He explained that the only job he had to do at the time of his appointment with respect to acquisition of passport was to sign the forms which would subsequently be issued by the director.

To this end, he entreated Ghanaians not to vote for Nana Addo as in the unlikely event that he becomes the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, the security of the citizenry would be threatened as he has no clue about protecting state properties.

The Deputy National Propaganda Secretary, Solomon Nkansah alerted the crowd that should Ghanaians make a mistake and vote for the NPP, just like they did when they assumed power in 2001, where they accused the NDC of squandering moneys meant for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and collected levis which was not used for the purpose it was earmarked for, the NPP in their usual self would introduce a free Secondary School levy to fund their flagship programme.

Mr. Nkansah warned the electorate to be wary of the NPP led by Nana Addo as they had nothing to offer because all that they are interested in is power to rip off the nation, hence the endless promising of freebies everywhere.