The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hon. Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, has appealed to men of God and other believers to refrain from anointing the newly launched chip-embedded passports with anointing oil, warning that it could compromise the document’s security features.
On Monday, April 28, at the official launch of the new passport, Hon. Ablakwa emphasized the importance of protecting the new passports from heat, liquids, and other forms of physical interference.
“I have seen on some channels where people take their passports to men of God to pray over them, hoping it will help them secure visas. But please, we beg you, for this new chip-embedded passport, we are pleading with you and your men of God: do not anoint it,” he said.
He advised that men of God could use any other part of a person’s body as a point of contact during prayers, rather than touching or anointing the passport itself, to prevent any damage that could compromise its embedded security features.
In a light-hearted moment, Hon. Ablakwa called on Rev. Lawrence Tetteh to help educate men of God nationwide on the need to avoid using anointing oil on the new passports.
He further warned that the new chip-embedded passport should not be stored together with other cards, such as bank cards or ID cards, as this could interfere with the encoded information.
Additionally, he cautioned against tampering with the biographical data page, stressing that attempting to separate or split it would cause irreversible damage to the passport.
