A 41-year-old Nigerian woman has been sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour for attempting to acquire a Ghanaian passport using forged documents, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has announced.
The convict, identified as Franca Wilson, pleaded guilty to three charges before the Adabraka District Court in Accra on May 12, 2026. The court ordered that the sentences run concurrently.
According to the GIS, Wilson, who works as a welder, was arrested during a routine vetting exercise at the Accra Passport Application Centre (PAC) on April 24, 2026. Immigration officers reportedly detected inconsistencies in her nationality claims during the verification process.
She was subsequently handed over to the National Enforcement Department at the GIS Headquarters for further investigations.
Investigations established that Wilson is a Nigerian citizen born in Rivers State to Nigerian parents. However, she allegedly presented a forged birth certificate claiming she was born in Somanya in the Eastern Region of Ghana to a Ghanaian mother.
The GIS stated that when questioned further, Wilson failed to provide convincing details to support her claims of Ghanaian nationality.
Authorities also discovered that she had obtained a fraudulent birth certificate, identified as Entry No. 310, and a Ghana Card with ID number GHA-731395447-1 through the assistance of an agent. The same agent allegedly handled her online passport application and appointment booking.
Wilson reportedly admitted to the offences in her caution statement.
Following the conviction, the Ghana Immigration Service cautioned foreign nationals against engaging the services of unauthorised middlemen who promise to secure Ghanaian identity or travel documents through illegal means.
The Service stressed that attempts to fraudulently acquire Ghanaian identity or travel documents remain serious criminal offences under Ghanaian law and warned that offenders would face severe sanctions.
