The Grenada government Tuesday denied social media reports that it had appointed an ambassador at large to Nigeria, as well as for staging an investment summit with the African country.
“I am not aware of any investment summit …and this is the first time I am hearing about it,” Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a news conference here, adding, “I am not aware that the gentleman you referred to as being appointed to any diplomatic position.
“If he was, he would not have been appointed by this government,” said Mitchell, who on June 23 led his National Democratic Congress (NDC) to a 9-6 victory over the New National Party (NNP) government in the general election.
Social media reports had indicated that on July 11, the new government had appointed Tochil Nwaneri from Imo State as the country’s ambassador at large to Nigeria.
The reports described Nwaneri as the chairman of Tochil Global Enterprises Ltd, Centrafrique Investment Group CIG.
But Prime Minister Mitchell told reporters that if the gentleman in question “had been so appointed, he certainly would be recalled.”
He admitted meeting the “gentleman last Monday evening,” describing it as a “courtesy call he asked to pay to me. He was accompanied by another Grenadian who was also appointed as a diplomat by the prior administration, and when he made that courtesy call, he asked for a photo, and the photo was given.
“When I met the gentleman, I certainly was not under the impression, nor did he convey to me, that he had been appointed as any diplomat,” Prime Minister Mitchell said, adding that he would prefer not to name the other “diplomat’ who had accompanied the gentleman.
The 44-year-old prime minister, who is also an attorney, told reporters that his less than one-month administration “has made no diplomatic appointments since taking up office, noting that the new government recalls all diplomats.
“Cabinet has since passed the necessary approval to do so,” he said, telling reporters that he had not actually seen the story regarding the appointment of the Nigerian as a Grenadian diplomat.
“I was told about it, but to be fair, we have not appointed anyone, and to the contrary, we have indicated that we are recalling, and we are in the process of recalling everyone. So that’s the most I can say. I don’t know the basis or genesis for the story.
“If there were appointments made by the prior administration, the same applies; whether they were made two or three years ago or made six days before the elections, the same applies. We recall everyone,” Mitchell told reporters.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Andall said the new administration would be implementing several recommendations from the Richard Cheltenham Commission of inquiry which was done more than ten years by Sir Richard Cheltenham.
The Commissioner of inquiry investigated the infamous briefcase scandal involving former Prime Minister Keith Mitchell on allegations that he accepted a bribe payment. The Cheltenham report recommended that Grenada cease appointing non-nationals to diplomatic posts such as ambassadors.
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