Visa Scandal: Deputy Minister, GOC President & others implicated in 2018 Commonwealth Games Australia Visa Scandal
Ghanaian Deputy Sports Minister Pius Enam Hadzide was aware of Ghana’s “blotted“ list months before the infamous deportation of at least 60 Ghanaians occurred in what is described as the “Australia Visa Scandal” at the 21st Commonwealth Games Gold Coast 2018.
Fact file of investigations:
● Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Pius Enam Hadzide allegedly added 12 names to GC2018 list, according to the GOC
● GOC President Ben Nunoo Mensah allegedly added 3 names-Bruce Nurudeen, Alexander Botchway& Emmanuel Akornor-to the GC2018 list, according to multiple sources
● GOC Deputy Treasurer/suspended GSA President Theophilus admits adding 14 names, including his relative Alexander Edzie to the GC2018 list
●GOC First Vice President/GVA President Paul Atchoe added two names of his relatives. 5 unidentified were detained and deported from Australia for misrepresenting themselves as beach volleyball players
●Ghana Boxing Federation President, Vice President and Secretary General were allegedly involved in a case of impersonation by a boxer who attempted to enter Australia by false pretenses, according to CDM.
Despite earlier denials, documents available to a group of investigators prove Mr. Hadzide, who was the then Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports and chairman of the International Games Committee, was aware of the “blotted” list in January when he led a recce team to plan Ghana’s pre games activities in Australia.
The Deputy Information Minister is accused of adding 12 names to Ghana’s list for the Games, according to officials of the Ghana Olympic Committee. (Minutes from GOC Emergency Committee Meeting, 23rd April, 2018).
In a memo to the Ghanaian Presidency on April 12, 2018 which led to the initial suspensions of three senior government officials, the substantive Minister of Youth and Sports Isaac Asiamah noted:
“The Deputy Minister denied any wrongdoing on his part although many of those deported have implicated him. It is rather sad that members of the NPP [governing party], who have been entrusted with the responsibility of serving the nation, should put their parochial interests above that of the nation,” Isaac Asiamah said.
Despite overwhelming evidence against the then Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, the Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo announced the reinstatement of Pius Enam Hadzide to his position on 9th July, 2018.
Mr. Hadzide was subsequently appointed as the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, a position he continues to occupy but the Presidency has yet to release the findings of the Criminal Investigations Department investigations which absolved Mr. Hadzide of any wrongdoing in the scandal.
Conspicuously missing from the list of reinstated officials was the Acting Director General of the National Sports Authority who was caught on camera receiving ¢ 5,000 to “get a national u-17 player more playing time in the national team.”
Background:
Four Ghanaian officials undertook the recce trip to Australia from 19th January to 30th January, 2018 including the then Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports Pius Enam, GOC Third Vice President Evans Yeboah, the then Director General of the National Sports Authority Robert Sarfo Mensah and the Chef de Mission Mohammed Sahnoon.
Mr. Pius Enam Hadzide and the team received first-hand information about Ghana’s list for the Games which had then been submitted to the Local Organising Committee (GOLDOC) by the Ghana Olympic Committee.
Evidence gathered by an international consortium of investigative journalists indicates that a member of the recce team, Mr. Evans Yeboah-who is also the Third Vice President of the Ghana Olympic Committee and President of the Badminton Association of Ghana- raised objections about the inclusion of certain names on the list.
“I was the first person to raise an alarm over Ghana’s GC 2018 possible blotted list during the International Games Committee (IGC) Recce trip in January 19th-30th, 2018 with the Chef de Mission and did informed him that I have noticed Badminton has “Strange names” and as President of the Federation I explored with CDM, that I had not authorized any additional long list of athletes or officials apart from our allowed list of entry, and that some number of persons had been added to our Federation and we DO NOT KNOW THEM,” Evans Yeboah said in the letter to the Ghana Olympic Committee.
Mr. Yeboah reveals in his letter that his concerns were initially met with stiff resistance by the Accreditation Officer Mr. Hussein Addy. Mr. Addy and Christian Ashley were eventually suspended after the scandal broke.
He added, “I was insulted, vilified and denigrated with unpalatable words by this same Accreditation officer (Hussein Addy) a copy of which I will share when we meet at our upcoming Board meeting.”
Meanwhile, in a separate letter addressing the concerns raised by Mr. Yeboah, Hussein Addy noted that the then Chairman of the International Games Committee (IGC), Pius Enam Hadzide had informed him about Evans’s concerns.
“The very first person to disclose this to me last week was the Chair of the IGC. My response was that he should ignore you claims and that he wishes, he can invite you to face me on that obvious untruth,” Hussein Addy wrote in a letter addressed to Mr. Evans Yeboah and others.
Mr. Yeboah further revealed that the Chef de Mission Mr. Mohammed Sahnoon had said he was going to “clean up” the list on or before 7th March, 2018 which was the deadline for the submission of the final list for the Games but failed to do so subsequently.
“The CDM(Mohammed Sahnoon), further informed me he will clean up the list on or before March 7th, 2018- which was the deadline for all final sport entries with GOLDOC and the GOC President also directed a clean-up of the list per what’s up instruction on (CWG What’s Platform) on February 2, 2018.”
Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports added 12 names to GC2018 list- GOC President But in an explosive GOC Emergency meeting held on 23rd April, 2018, the GOC President alleged that the accreditation officer Hussein Addy and Christine Ashley had made some admissions following initial investigations on 30th March, 2018 when the scandal first broke in Australia.
“The admissions included the fact that some badminton players had been added to the list through the intervention of the Director General of the NSA and the President of the Badminton Federation.
The GOC President added that the pair had alleged that the then Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Pius Enam Hadzide had also added some names to the list.
“That 12 names had also been added to the list as guests through the Deputy Minister with the consent of the CDM. That the President of Swimming and Secretary General of Para Sports Mr.
Elletey had also added 14 and 25 names respectively,” Minutes of the GOC Emergency meeting
read.
In an interesting twist to the tale, one of those alleged to have admitted that the then Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports had included 12 names to the list, Christine Ashley, blamed the GOC President for what she called false reportage.
“All the list we entered were submitted to us by presidents of the various federations or their secretaries and how would we know this is truly a player or not and so it’s certainly not our fault,” she told host Henry Asante Twum in an interview on Accra based Starr FM and published on www.starrsportsgh.com on 26th July, 2018.
“Even if we had done anything wrong, why didn’t they scrutinize the list before we went to Australia but decided to tarnish our image in Australia? But I, Christine Ashley, will blame GOC president Ben Nunoo Mensah because he started the whole process and gave false reportage to the media in Australia,” she argued.
This specific information on the alleged 12 names provided by the then Deputy Minister has not been independently verified.
Documents available to this investigation suggests GOC President questioned another GOC Board member Evans Yeboah in a letter saying: ….“Did you agree with the Deputy Minister for the MOYS to review the TSC of GC2018 to ensure that some party(NPP) doctors and others are added?”…….
GOC PRESIDENT’S LETTER:
Our attempts to speak to the Deputy Minister has not been successful. But the GOC also failed to provide the names of the 12 people who were allegedly submitted by the then Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports through the Accreditation Offciers. But in an earlier interview with www.ghanaweb.com, Mr. Hadzide denied any involvement in the scandal:
GOC First Vice President & Ghana Volleyball Association GOC First Vice President & Ghana Volleyball Association Paul Atchoe added two names of his siblings to the GW2018 list. There were Martin Atchoe & Sampson Atchoe
The entire list for Beach volleyball was made up of none volleyball athletes and officials.
More importantly, the investigations found out that athletes and officials registered were not even aware of their registration on the list.
In the Interim Report on GC2018, the Chef de Mission, Mohammed Sahnoon stated that “On 16th March, 2018, I received an email from Gabir Behr on entry into Australia of some athletes for beach volleyball players on 14th March, 2018 as part of the first batch of delegates.”
They were:
●Amadu Abdul Razak ●Bismark Adu-Manu
● Amakye Emmanuel ●Nti Emmanuel Aninakwaah
● Taylor Abdul Salim
After they failed to prove their identities and purpose for travelling to Australia, they weresubsequently detained and deported.
Interestingly this team was led by Christian Ashley, General Secretary of the Ghana Volleyball Association and personal assistance to the GOC President Ben Nunoo Mensah.
GOC First Vice President Paul Atchoe and General Secretary of the Ghana Volleyball Association Christian Ashley have failed to respond to email queries from our investigations.
In an earlier interview with www.ghanaweb.com, Mr. Paul Atchoe denied he and his outfit were involved in the alleged visa scam.
GOC Deputy Treasurer and Ghana Swimming Association President Theophilus Edzie GOC Deputy Treasurer Theophilus Edzie was suspended from his position as the President of the Ghana Swimming Association after he was found to have illegally added 16 names to the official list of the GSA.
GSA suspension letter:
Minutes of the GOC Emergency meeting held 23rd April, 2018 indicates Mr. Theophilus Edzie admitted his guilt, saying he had added 14 names to the lists.
“The President of Swimming admitted that he had submitted 14 names to ALO to enter in the accreditation system. He stated further that these names were given him by Kamal Sulley the Vice President of Rowing and Canoeing and Saka Acquaye of the NSA. Mr. Edzie also informed the board that he added a relative’s name but with the consent of the CDM. Mr. Edzie denied receiving any money from these persons in order to obtain visas,” Minutes of GOC Emergency meeting.
Ghana Boxing Federation President George Lamptey “That CDM was informed about a boxer who was attempting to enter Australia and upon questioning the President of boxing CDM found out that the boxer was impersonated and the Secretary General and Vice President of Boxing were those alleged to be involved.” Minutes GOC Emergency Executive Committee meeting, 23rd April, 2018.
The Ghana Boxing Federation is yet to respond to questions about how this “incident of impersonation occurred” and which officials were responsible for this as alleged by the Chef de Mission.
Many other individuals and National Sports Associations are yet to respond to questions we sent them about their involvement in the scandal.
Summary:
To date, the Ghanaian government is yet to make Public the findings of the CID investigations despite many public calls for it.
Nobody has been prosecuted or held responsible for the “Australia Visa Scandal.” Auditor-General of Ghana Daniel Domelevo recently commented about corruption in Ghana saying, “In the developed countries when you’re caught (in corruption) you’re finished; there are consequences. In Ghana or Africa when you’re caught you can even bluff them; they say ‘and so what’ because he knows nothing will happen”.
More to come……….
Source: Ghanaiandemocrat.com
