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Legal practitioner Yoni Kulendi has stressed that while it should be a matter of national concern that foreign nationals are illegally acquiring Ghanaian diplomatic passports, it is not strange at all for non-Ghanaians to legally acquire same.

According him, over the years Ghanaian passports have been given to several foreign nationals, including former South African president Nelson Mandela because of specific contributions or roles they played in the host country.

Mr Kulendi’s revelation follows a report in the New Crusading Guide newspaper by ace investigative reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas in which  a Russian businessman in Ghana, Ramazan Kafarov, was said  to be holding an ordinary Ghanaian passport as well as a Ghanaian diplomatic passport.

According to the story, circumstances under which Ramazan obtained the passport are unclear to the paper, but the laws of Ghana do not allow non-citizens to obtain diplomatic passports.

The paper alleged that, the bio data passport page of Mr Ramazan said that he is a Ghanaian by nationality.

The paper again alleged that Ramazan is in a financial tango with some other foreign nationals who are accusing him of defrauding them to the tune of over $60 million.

Anas said because of that fraud claims against Ramazan, he has refused to go to his home country for fear of being arrested.

He said shortly after he started raising questions about the circumstances under which Ramazan got his diplomatic passport, the state revoked the passport, an admission that the diplomatic passport was fraudulently issued.

Anas' report of an alleged Russian fraudster owning a Ghanaian diplomatic passport sent shock waves to many concerned Ghanaians.

As if the Russian debacle is not enough, Anas said he has other information about how people fraudulently secured diplomatic passports in Ghana and that should be a huge concern to well meaning Ghanaians.

But in an interview on the Super Morning Show Thursday, Yoni Kulendi, said the story that the Russian is accused of defrauding many people is palpably false.

“The story has been cleared, he’s been arraigned in court publicly, there is a single complainant. The complaint is in relation to $2 million which the person alleges he defrauded by breach of a joint venture agreement,” he said.

He noted that the agreement was not made in Russia, it was made in Ghana, it was meant to be performed in Ghana and the money was supposed to be invested in Ghana and that it is strange that the complainant will rather go to Russia to file his complaint.

The legal practitioner explained that considering that Anas, as an undercover journalist gets assistance from state agencies to facilitate things he is doing in the national interest, “that discretion which facilitates national interest can extend to circumstances in which state and governments across the world may confer on you, for specific purposes, special privileges to enable you undertake, collaborate and do things to advance the national interest of a country.”

Mr Kulendi stressed that it is not strange to find a non-Ghanaian holding a Ghanaian passport or a Ghanaian diplomatic passport.

“It depends on what the circumstances were. It is permissible in law, it’s permissible in international practice, it’s permissible in international intelligence.”

Citing examples, the legal practitioner revealed that, “People like Mandela, they all once upon a time held Ghanaian passport not because they were refugees but because Ghana was collaborating to advance a certain international policy agenda that we believe in.”      

Kulendi was however not sure about the circumstances under which Ramazan was issued with the diplomatic passport.  

Mr Ramazan, he noted, had the passport before the alleged fraud incident occured and that authorities acted to invoke or cancel the passport when the report of the fraud emerged, adding it was not as a result of Anas' investigation that Ramazan's diplomatic passport was revoked.

He, however, warned that if “document of national identity, for international travel, is easily accessible in the manner that Anas puts it, it’s a matter that should make us all want to sit up.”