..Two persons he secured visas for and took to US summit fail to return
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Boniface Abubakar Saddique, is buckling under intense pressures to explain how he facilitated the securing of United States visas for two members of his constituency who have failed to return to Accra after attending a Gonjaland Youth Economic Summit in the US in July this year.

The two were among four people that the Minister assisted in securing visas for the trip and who were part of a delegation led by the Minister to the two-day summit the USA.

The Minister, who is the Member of Parliament for Salaga visited the US with his entourage on the request and invitation of the Virginia-based Gonja Association of North America to attend the maiden Gonjaland Youth Economic Forum in Washington DC.

The summit, which sought to serve as a catalyst to attract investment to Gonja communities in Ghana, was on July 5 - 7, 2002.

Yet several weeks after the event, only one of three members of the Minister?s entourage of personal assistants and administrative officers has returned to Accra. Another person who secured a visa through the Minister, according to him, did not attend the event, while the two others have failed to return home. The two are Jamal Issifu and Tanko Iddrissu, described by the Minister as a personal assistant of his independent campaign team and a representative of the youth group in his constituency.

Their non-return has already sparked speculations that the Minster might have engaged in a visa deal to secure the visas for the duo.

But though the deputy Minister admitted that he helped to secure the visas for the two, he denied that it was as a result of a visa racketeering deal.

He told the National Concord last week that he was in constant communication with the remaining two members of the delegation who have assured him of their intention to return before the end of this month, when their three-month visa would expire.

He said the problem with the duo staying beyond the summit period arose because he had to leave the US to Cuba just after the summit. The two other members of the delegation, according to the Minister, took a last minute decision to stay in the U.S. after he had left for an official visit to Havana, Cuba. He described the allegations of visa racketeering against him as attempts by elements within his constituency who want to pit him against the President and derail his political career.

The Gonja Youth Economic Summit drew representatives of Gonja heavyweights across the globe, including a Ghanaian team that included deputy Education Minister Rashid Bawa, Bole-Bamboi MP John Mahama, former GFA Chairman Alhaj M. N. D. Jawula and others.

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