Ben Nunoo Mensah[/caption] Some members of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) have been cited for acting against the governing New Patriotic Party by making regular references to 2018 Commonwealth Games visa scandal to score political point and make the government look bad. There seems to be a grand scheme by some executive members of the Ghana Olympic Committee, deploying crude and surreptitious tactics to court public disaffection for President Nana Akufo-Addo, modernghana.com’s investigations have uncovered. These elements within the Olympic Committee board are still pushing for an inquiry into the alleged Australia visa scandal, thus challenging the report of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service which exonerated former Deputy Sports Minister Pius Enam Hadzide, NSA Board Chairman Kwadwo Baah Agyeman of any wrongdoing. The three member committee set up by the GOC and chaired by Justice Amadu Tanko, Messrs Gifty Annan-Myers and Peter Kpordugbe, who are believed to be sympathizers of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), are insisting on going ahead with the ‘bogus’ investigation, aimed at targeting the GOC president, his allies and key elements within the ruling New Patriotic Party. Several attempts by the Ghana Olympic boss Ben Nunoo Mensah to stop the sitting ‘sine die’ has been met with stiff opposition some GOC members who are hell bent on using the unsubstantiated allegations to make the government unpopular. Perhaps what has muddied the waters at the corridors of the GOC is the open division between current boss Ben Nunoo Mensah and his predecessor Professor Francis Dodoo and associates. The poor communication between the GOC board and the communication team led to officers supposedly belonging to Professor Francis Dodoo’s block, challenging the GOC leadership on the rumpus. There have been several underhand dealings to use the Australia visa scenario to set-up GOC boss Nunoo Mensah against the government – a move which he has resisted. While the report of the CID and the subsequent exoneration of top officials by the President of the Republic, Nana Akufo-Addo, remain supreme, internal elements are still pushing for a ‘non-existent’ inquiry into the tittle-tattle. The GOC internal elements are said to be working to prove that the top NPP officials initially interdicted and subsequently exonerated by the President were deeply involved in the visa fiasco contrary to the CID report. The pro Francis Dodoo apologists and apparatchiks are relying pseudo media outlets to achieve their aim. Internal memos, letters and emails are being leaked from the office of the GOC to outsiders on daily basis – ostensibly to create disaffection for the GOC boss and his administration. Internal letters sent to the Justice Amadu Tanko committee and copied only to the GOC Secretary General Richard Akpokavie and President Ben Nunoo Mensah miraculously found their way into the hands of outsiders. It appears GOC boss Ben Nunoo Mensah will have to fasten his belt and face his detractors head-on as they are bent on deploying every means necessary to pin him against the ruling government while making the government itself unpopular amid their selfish political gains. President Akufo-Addo must call the GOC to order and ask the body to concentrate on their core mandate of influencing sports development, rather than engaging in political squabbles to attain their selfish goals and satisfy their interest. The internal elements who are still in the pre-election mood have pitched camp, deploying several strategies to bring the Ben Nunoo Mensah administration down, hence the supposed internal investigation to make the NPP unpopular and pin the GOC boss. Ben Nunoo Mensah, who is also the president of the Ghana Weightlifting Association, has had to battle internal oppositions in particular since he won a bitter election to unseat Professor Francis Dodoo two years ago. Elements within the previous and current administration have attempted several times without success over the period to undermine his work as they have been unable to overcome their painful electoral defeat. Faceless journalists are being used as pawns to harass his administration, churning out several falsehood and misrepresentation to make him unpopular. We have chanced upon several correspondence and emails targeted at using the Australia visa issue to attack the NPP government and make Ben Nunoo Mensah unpopular in the eye of the right-thinking members of the Ghanaian society. The name/s of the supposed journalists based in India currently, will be unleashed in the coming days. Some Ghanaians travelling into Australia during the Commonwealth games were flagged and subsequently deported from Australia after they were unable to produce concrete evidence to back their claim. Top government officials were asked to step aside for the role they played as members of the International Games Commission, a sub body set aside to coordinate all Ghana’s activities during the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. The case was referred to the National Security for investigations and subsequently led to the suspension of the deputy information minister-designate, Pius Enam Hadzide, former NSA Director-General Robert Sarfo-Mensah and NSA Board Chairman Kwadwo Baah-Agyemang. The top officials were cleared of any wrongdoing after investigations proved the so-called visa scandal was nothing but dramatization and hoax. Source: Eliot Nkansah | Modernghana.com | Ghana]]>
