Joyce Boakye, the 37-year-old daughter of former Asunafo South MP George Boakye, has rendered an unqualified apology to her father, family, and Ghanaians for overstaying her visa for more than three years.
“I erred and I want to be forgiven as well as my father. My father did not take money from me to travel with him, neither did he go with me for me to go and stay there beyond the visa period,” she told classfmonline.com on Thursday, April 27.
According to her, she did not get in touch with her father while in the UK because she did not want to be under pressure to return home, and so had to put up with her boyfriend in that country.
“I went to meet my boyfriend and was living with him for the last three-and-half years and he catered for me,” she said.
However, after three years when Mr Boakye called her to return to Ghana, she obliged and returned on January 8, 2017.
Three MPs, together with a former lawmaker, were cited in separate alleged visa offences by the UK government and a 10-year visa ban placed on them.
They include: Richard Acheampong, MP for Bia East in the Western Region; Joseph Benhazin Dahah, MP for Asutifi North (Ntotroso) in the Brong Ahafo Region; Johnson Kwaku Adu, MP for Ahafo Ano South West in the Ashanti Region; and George Boakye, former MP for Asunafo South in the Brong Ahafo Region.
A confidential letter written to the Speaker of Parliament by the UK government through the UK High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Jon Benjamin, said the four MPs violated UK visa regulations on different occasions by either providing false information for their visa applications or facilitating the visas of some relatives who overstayed their visas in the UK.
Ms Boakye said she felt bad upon hearing the news because Mr Boakye was not at fault as she was to blame. According to her, four days after her return, Mr Boakye took her to the British High Commission in Accra to inform them of her return and undergo the necessary processes, so she was surprised the matter later became public.
“When I came, he [Mr Boakye] booked an appointment at the British High Commission and we went there together to discuss the issue and I apologised, so I was not expecting that it will turn out this way,” she explained.
She said she has lived with her father since her return to the country and recently travelled to Nyinahin to visit her mother, only to later hear the news on Wednesday. Ms Boakye added that she has called her father to apologise.
She revealed that the news had saddened Mr Boakye but he had forgiven her for the offence and appealed to Ghanaians to also forgive her father.
She refuted allegations of any visa racketeering, adding that she was the only one her father travelled with and “never even took a penny from her”.
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