The Minority in Parliament has warned it will reject any new information or evidence the Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduces regarding the evacuation of Ghanaians from South Africa, insisting that the government’s explanations must align with documents already released.
Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, said the Minority’s concerns stemmed from records obtained through a Right to Information (RTI) request.
He stressed that the Minority supported the evacuation as a humanitarian intervention but wanted clarification on the number of people evacuated, the cost of the exercise, and how the expenditure was documented.
“The evacuation we all supported. It was a good humanitarian cause, and we commended him for that. But the figure of 1,964 made the Minority question the build-up to get that number, the cost involved and all the documents on the evacuation,” he said in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen.
According to Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, the documents received from the Ministry formed the basis of the Minority’s press conferences and calls for accountability.
“For integrity’s sake, we will resist any attempt by the Ministry to introduce any new information or new evidence on this matter,” he said.
He also accused the Ministry of changing information on its website, warning that the Minority would not accept details introduced after the initial documents had been provided.
Asafo-Adjei Ayeh said the Ministry reported that 1,964 Ghanaians were evacuated, with each returnee expected to receive GH¢5,000 in reintegration support and GH¢500 for transportation.
However, he said the records supplied to the Minority showed that 1,508 people signed for the GH¢5,000 payment, while 1,001 signed for the GH¢500 transportation allowance.
He added that only 824 names appeared on both payment lists, raising questions about how the Ministry accounted for the differences between the figures and the reported total number of evacuees.
The MP further alleged that some entries in the documents were duplicated, casting doubt on the accuracy of the records.
He said the Minority wanted the Ministry to provide further explanations and called for an independent audit to examine the records and expenditure.
“The Ministry should give it to independent auditors to audit because of the level of discrepancies we are seeing,” he said
