Accra- This may sound unpalatable to the ear, yet true. The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to Ghana H.E Mrs. Nezha Alaoui M’HAMDI blatantly despised Ghana’s immigration authorities at the prestigious Kotoka International Airport (KIA), when she refused to go through formalities.
The ambassador who had arrived at the KIA airport about 5:45am on the 1st of September via Royal Air Maroc expressed her fury at the protocol officers right on the tarmac, questioning the reason behind her being picked up with one of the very modest Nissan- urvan.
According to Citizenghana.com sources, the Moroccan ambassador always does the same anytime she flews in. As if expressing her displeasure with the vehicle which was used to pick her and others from the diplomatic mission at the tarmac, Mrs. Nezha Alaoui M’HAMDI publicly ignored laid down processes of submitting your passport for verification and subsequent stamping on it to indicate that you are officially entering the Ghanaian territories.
Sources at the VIP lounge said that “no amount of respect was witnessed by the immigration officers vis-à-vis the furious-looking diplomats.’’
The source went on further to say that Mrs. Nezha Alaoui M’HAMDI “left in haste to sit in her awaiting official car and drove off in total disrespect and disregard to both due procedures and workers at the VIP lounge, to the total awe and surprise of people who watched the scene.’’
This attitude shown by the Moroccan ambassador to Ghana is despicable and condemnable. How dare any Ghanaian go to Rabat or Casablanca to behave as such?
Her consistent show of disregard to Ghana’s rules has the potential to crack-down the good relationship between Accra and Rabat.
The sources at the airport added that the Moroccan ambassador, after satisfying her ego, sent her driver to present her passport to the immigration officers for it to be stamped hours later.
What prompted the ambassador to act the way she did on that fateful day? The act was not only shameful but a threat to our security for a foreign diplomat to have flouted the country’s laws with such impunity.
This is not an issue to be swept under the carpet. Ghana is a sovereign state and should be respected as such.
At this time of writing those lines, sources at the Foreign Ministry had hinted that immediate steps have been taken to call the ambassador to order.
