Former Information Minister, Stephen Asamoah Boateng was Sunday evening prevented from boarding a British Airways flight to the United States of America by National Security operatives. He was going through final departure formalities when he was told he has a date on Monday with the Bureau of National Investigations, (BNI), which requires him to help with ongoing investigations into affairs of the Kufuor administration in which he served so he could not travel. He was travelling to the US with his family – his wife and two children aged two and four years – where Joy News sources say he planned a two-week vacation. The former Mfantsiman West Member of Parliament thus had to return home with the family. Joy News sources at the Kotoka International Airport say the incident was not without drama as the former minister’s wife had to virtually wrench her husband’s passport from the security operatives who initially took custody of it. Her demands to see the identity of the operatives, as well as their warrant for preventing her husband from travelling drew blank, leading her to angrily take back the passport. Her attempts to convince BA officials that they were legal travelers who should be taken in also failed, as the officials appeared not in any mood to engage in any debate with state security. Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline.com