‘I have not been arrested by Interpol’ – Ghanaian PhD student reacts

• His name was placed on a “stop list” but has since been removed

• He is currently home with his family

Nelson Maxwell Acquah, a Ghanaian PhD student, has denied allegations that he has been arrested by Interpol at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

“In fact, I was supposed to travel on Saturday, July 17, but when I got to the airport, I was told that the country that I was travelling to will not accept flights from the country that I will be transiting to. I was going to the US but I was transiting through the UK but they said the US does not allow flights from the UK unless you are an American citizen or your children, wife or husband is a citizen of America, that is when you can travel through the UK and other EU countries…,” Nelson Maxwell Acquah explained exclusively to GhanaWeb’s Ekow Arthur-Aidoo.

He added that when he resolved all the issues surrounding his flight, he decided to travel out of the country on Tuesday, July 20, but when he got to the Kotoka International Airport, and was going through the departure formalities he was told by an Immigration Officer, that he can’t travel because his name is on the “stop list” – anybody whose name is on the stop list is prevented from traveling out of the country – but it was resolved on the same day.

“When they were checking and they were not finding the reason why my name is on the stop list, I was asked to go to the immigration headquarters [to verify]. When I got to the immigration headquarters, they checked on their system and realised that a police officer had applied to them to put my name on the stop list in 2020…,” he narrated.

Acquah further explained that when the immigration officials reached out to the aforementioned police officer and asked if the issue he, the police officer, had about Acquah] had been resolved, he [police officer] responded in the affirmative.

Acquah indicated that when the officer was asked why he had not applied for his name to be removed from the stop list, he could not offer any better explanation to the immigration officials.

Instead, the police officer promised he would be bringing a letter on Wednesday, July 20, so that Nelson Maxwell Acquah’s name would be removed from the list.

Acquah stated that, on Wednesday when they got back to the immigration headquarters, the police officer was lackadaisical in bringing the letter; he kept giving the immigration official excuses until the head of the immigration office gave him an ultimatum to produce the letter or else face the consequences.

Acquah further denied ever being arrested during his wedding.

“I was never arrested, not to even talk of Interpol. I was not sacked from school. I withdrew from the school voluntarily because I lost my scholarship; I could not pay fourteen thousand pounds a year plus living expenses,” he stressed.