Crusading guide vindicated: RAMAZAN' DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT FRAUDULENT

The fraud associated with passport acquisition in Ghana is becaming murkier by the day.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Madam Hannah Tetteh, has confirmed that Ramazan Kafarov a Russian businessman in Ghana, fraudulently obtained Ghana's diplomatic and ordinary passport contrary to the laws of the land.

She added that the diplomatic passports illegally obtained by Ramazan and others like him have been revoked "from the system". The substantive matter of the fraudulent acquisition has since been referred to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for further investigations she said.

The Minister revealed this in an interview on an Accra based radio station, Star FM.

She admitted that there was a subversion of the passport acquisition processes which made it possible for officials to process and deliver diplomatic passports to foreigners.

"There were a number of passports including this Russian who was picked up recently ... where you saw that the names of the people with DPs couldn't possibly be Ghanaians so I called for the application forms to see if this is something I had authorised... and indeed it did come back that it was without authorisation," she underscored.

The New Crusading GUIDE checks revealed that the two passports (ordinary and diplomatic passports) Ramazan was holding were issued fraudulently at the passport office for various sums of money. The story broke last month with the headline "Fraud at Passport office

THE RAMAZAN RUSSIAN CONNECTION
...How Russian on Interpol Wanted List obtained a Ghanaian Diplomatic Passport. Ordinary passports now sold for GHc 800, diplomatic passports going for € 4000 at passport office".

Before that,this reporter drew the attention of Flagstaff House and some security agencies to the fraud. Ramazan Kafarov is a Russian businessman who is on the wanted list of his native country and other European countries as a result of a warrant issued for his arrest by Interpol. He has however found a safe haven in Ghana and miraculously managed to obtain two passports; ordinary and diplomatic. His lawyer Yoni Kulendi was on Joy FM to react to the story when it broke.

RAMAZANS ARREST
Ramazan was arrested late January this year after a red alert had been transmitted to Interpol Accra from their counterparts in Moscow. He was picked up at his East Legon residence by personnel from the Accra BNI office.

Aside Interpol's chase, he is currently in court over charges of defrauding by false pretence, a charge brought by one Rodenko, his former business associate who accuses Ramazan of bolting with their monies with the view of investing in gold.

Ramazan has pleaded not guilty to the charge and has since been granted bail to the tune of GHc7 million with three sureties.

CASH FOR PASSPORTS, 22 PASSPORTS PER DAY.
The issue of official complicity in the issuance of passports is a story that has been covered extensively by this paper in the past and very recently. Till date, foreigners come into Ghana and buy our passports with cash.

The ordinary Ghanaian meanwhile is on a daily basis strained and stressed even though they present all documents needed in applying for passports in a biometric regime. The manmade impediments at most passport offices inure to the benefit of the corrupt few.

"Now I give the passport officials 1000 gh for per passport. Today alone I have done 27 passports." On the average I am able to do at least 22 connection passport per day"said Kwame mbiah (not his real name) a connection man who has been in the business for the last 5 years.

He said showing all the 27 passport to the Crusading Guide reporter that things don't work at the passport office. "I wish I was not doing that, but if you follow procedure you are doomed forever. But if you have cash you can get it faster. He advised that if anybody wanted a passport he should try and pay the 1000 gh and get it fast rather than opt to go through the normal procedure. "Is a waste of time" he concluded.

Stay tune on the details of how the Russian business man obtained the diplomatic passport? Who were those involved in helping him acquire it?