CHRAJ clears Rev Kusi Boateng of allegation of holding two passports with different names

• Posted on November 26, 2024November 26, 2024
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has cleared a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral Project, Rev Kusi Boateng of an allegation of holding two passports with different names and dates of birth.

The allegation was made by North Tongu lawmaker Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in a petition he filed at CHRAJ to investigate the National Cathedral project.

In its final report issued on Monday, November 25, CHRAJ said that “The complainant alleged in the Complaint that, the 4th Respondent [Rev Kusi Boateng] holds two different passports under his two names i.e. Victor Kusi Boateng and Kwabena Adu Gyamfi. He stated thus ‘It was also later revealed that, 4th Respondent holds two different passports each bearing one of his two names with different dates of birth on each document’.

To buttress his point, Mr Ablakwa attached copies of the Rev Kusi Boateng’s passports bearing the name “Kwabena Adu Gyamfi” but failed to attach the one bearing the name “Victor Kusi Boateng”. When requested by the Commission to produce the passport bearing the Victor Kusi Boateng name, the Respondent by letter dated 9 March 2023 doubled down on his earlier assertion and responded thus:

“On the request for 4th Respondent’s Victor Kusi Boateng Passport, I have compelling cause to believe that he possesses another passport in his Victor Kusi Boateng identity similar to how he successfully obtained a passport in his Kwabena Adu Gyamfi identity. So far, I have secured his Kwabena Adu Gyamfi passports including a diplomatic Passport which I duly attached in my January 16. The search however continues for his Victor Kusi Boateng passport,” Mr Ablakwa said in his petition.

Rev Kusi Boanet on the other hand maintained that he does not possess two passports under his two names, CHRAJ said.

In his 25 January 2023 Comments to the Commission, it was stated, “The Petitioner in Paragraph 27 of his petition has alluded to the fact that the 4th Respondent has “two different passports each bearing one of his two names with different dates of birth on each document. The 4th Respondent denies this assertion. He has never held a passport under the name of Victor Kusi Boateng”.

To effectively resolve this issue, the Commission by letter dated 10th July, 2023 requested information on Passports under the names of Rev. Victor Kusi- Boateng and Kwabena Adu Gyamfi from the Passport Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration.

“On 14 day of July 2023, the Passport Office which is the body responsible for the issuance of passports and other travel documents in Ghana per Exhibit 37 after stipulating the various times that the 4th Respondent in the name of KWABENA ADU GYAMFI was issued with ordinary and diplomatic passports from 2016 through to 2021 indicated that ‘there is no Victor Kusi-Boateng in the Passport database’. The data provided to the Commission shows that the 4th Respondent currently holds one non extant passport No. G3415693 issued on 27 October 2021 and set to expire on 26 October 2031and one diplomatic Passport No. DX006845 issued on 25 November 2021 expiring on 24 November 2025.Two ordinary passports earlier issued to him have since expired.

“Based on the evidence before it, the Commission finds that, contrary to the Complainant’s allegation that the 4th Respondent Victor Kusi-Boateng a.k.a Kwabena Adu Gyamfi holds two different passports each bearing one of his two names with different dates of birth on each document, the 4th Respondent rather holds one diplomatic and one ordinary passport only under his name Kwabena Adu Gyamfi. For avoidance of doubt, at no point in time has the 4th Respondent been issued a passport under his name, Victor Kusi-Boateng.”

Meanwhile, the petitioner, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has welcomed the report and described it as “damning”.

He however stated that “CHRAJ did a poor job in relation to the double identities of Rev Kusi Boateng.”

He spoke with Alfred Ocansey on 3FM’s Hot Edition on November 25.