From the Citizen Political Desk
Information reaching The Citizen indicates that Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., the Managing Editor of The Insight Newspaper has returned a diplomatic passport that the Mills- Mahama led administration gave him to propagate the agenda of the current Government internationally.
The surrender of the diplomatic passport to the authorities followed The Citizen’s exposé of the acquisition and subsequent usage of the said passport during his visit to Venezuela, Ivory Coast, Saharawii Arab Republic, Iran, South Africa, Egypt among a host of other countries.
This paper has established that the diplomatic passport was provided to him when he was embarking on a trip to Venezuela.
When the authoritative Citizen Newspaper brought the issue to public attention, our reliable sources close to the Government say the news caused uproar in Government with some ministers including some of the President’s right- hand men expressing discomfort with the usage of the said passport by Mr. Pratt, owing to his criticism of similar practice under the watch of Ex- President Kufour.
An obviously embarrassed de-facto Prime Minister in the President Mills’ Government who facilitated the acquisition of the diplomatic passport for Mr. Pratt, according to the sources quickly had to make a dramatic and sudden u-turn for the Managing Editor of The Insight to be re issued with an ordinary passport with number G0081184 on the 31st January 2012.
The flaunting of the diplomatic passport by Mr. Pratt, the arrow head of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), according to political connoisseurs is a hypocritical stance by a man who pretends to be an apostle of anti-corruption and a severe slap in the face of his strident criticism of individuals who according to him, never deserved diplomatic passport yet, were given during the erstwhile President John Kufour’s Government.
For the records, Ex-President Kufour, contrary to standard practice and diplomatic rules doled out diplomatic passport to some members of the clergy, party functionaries, chiefs and cronies when he was the President of Ghana.
Mr. Pratt, who has gained notoriety and legendary status in Ghana’s socio-political landscape as a vicious anti-establishment persona ’s paper, The Insight was awashed with names of individuals, including Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who according to him, did not deserve Diplomatic Passport, yet hold Ghana’s Diplomatic Passport.
Source: The Citizen Newspaper ([email protected]) +233 27 731 4655
Source: GhanaWeb
