'We are demanding our GH¢16m back' – Abu Jinapor at 'Yɛ Gye Yɛ Sika' demo

The Ranking Member of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, has joined members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Youth Wing in their 'Yɛ Gye Yɛ Sika' demonstration in Accra, demanding accountability over the expenditure on the evacuation of Ghanaians from South Africa.

Abu Jinapor said the Minority had identified several discrepancies in documents provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the GH¢49.72 million spent on the evacuation exercise.

He cited alleged duplicate entries, repeated signatures, concerns over the cost of chartered flights and records indicating that some evacuees were born in 2036.

Speaking to journalists during the demonstration on Tuesday, November 3, the Damongo MP stressed that the discrepancies raised questions about more than GH¢16 million in public funds.

"When you do all the computation of the irregularities as well as the duplications, you have a loophole, unaccounted accounts of some GH¢16 million-plus. That's a whopping sum of money, which can do a whole lot for our country. It can build clinics, it can build schools and all of that,” he said.

The Ranking Member rejected suggestions that the discrepancies could be attributed to human error, arguing that the caucus had conducted a thorough examination of the documents.

He compared the records to previous evacuation exercises undertaken by Ghana, including those involving Ghanaians stranded by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

According to him, the accounting arrangements for those exercises were handled diligently, making it inappropriate to dismiss the concerns raised over the latest exercise as administrative mistakes.

“This cannot be reduced to human error. It is absolutely objectionable, and we object to that in all things,” he stressed.

The demonstration, organised by the NPP Youth Wing under the theme 'Yɛ Gye Yɛ Sika', is aimed at compelling the government and the Foreign Affairs Ministry to account for the expenditure.

The controversy follows the government's disclosure that it spent GH¢49,721,786 to evacuate 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa between May 27 and September 4, 2026, following renewed xenophobic attacks.

However, the Minority has questioned the supporting documents provided by the ministry, alleging inconsistencies in payment registers, passenger manifests and records of reintegration and transport allowances.