When news broke that the Ghanian Embassy in Japan was alleged to have been involved in operating an illegal gambling den in Tokyo, it put Ambassador Edmond Kofi Agbenutse Deh, Ghana’s envoy to Japan, in a pretty tight quandary.
But new details have emerged about the case and it appears that Ambassador Deh had no knowledge that a gang of Japanese gamblers had duped him into signing documents to rent out a property belonging to the mission.
According to the Daily Guide, the envoy was fooled into believing that the property that was being rented out was going to be used for an NGO activity. Instead, the embassy was embarrassed to find out that not only was there no semblance of NGO-like activity on the property, it was actually being used to run an illegal gambling den. The humiliation became all too real when Tokyo law enforcement officers raided the property, arresting a handful of individuals, including its manager, Hiroyuki Yamanoi, as well as nine other employees and two playing customers.
Even with these new details seemingly absolving the embassy of any involvement in the illegal gambling operation, it doesn’t take away the growing belief on how incompetent and seemingly unprepared Ambassador Deh was in fully understanding what he was signing off on when he put his signature on the lease without understanding the specific nature of the supposed NGO.
It’s a predicament that has spread like wildfire in Japan with a number of Ghanian nationals even admitting to having been harassed by Japanese citizens only because of they share the same nationality. According to SpyGhana, some Ghanians have become fearful of going to work because of the possibility of getting egged on for their embassy’s flaming incompetency.
Nana Oduro Nimapau, a member of the the Ghana-Japanese Association told a local radio station of how a lot of Ghana nationals have been unfairly scrutinized. “Yesterday afternoon and this morning for instance, I was unable to go to work, I couldn’t open my shop because people were pointing fingers at me the moment they realize I am Ghanaian, some of my other colleagues are also making similar complaints.”
It’s an unfair consequence that these folks have been subjected to, although how much sympathy one can have towards the ambassador can be debated. After all, it was his signature in the accompanying tenancy agreement to let out the place to this gang of Japanese gamblers. Even if he doesn’t appear to be involved, he still has a whole lot of questions to answer for. Technically, diplomatic immunity prevents Japanese authorities from questioning him, but the latter are reported to have taken steps to ask Ambassador Deh to waive his immunity so he can be questioned on why he consented on signing off that lease.
There’s still a number of developments you can expect from this case, and don’t be surprised if one of them involves the recall of Ambassador Deh back to Ghana. That much appears to be a dead-on certainty.
