May 24 – Ghana FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi (pictured) surrendered to Ghanaian authorities yesterday for questioning after Ghana’s president ordered his arrest on charges of “defrauding by false pretences” after he was caught on video accusing the president of corruption.
President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service to arrest Nyantakyi after seeing an undercover documentary by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
In the video, Kwesi Nyantakyi allegedly claims: “Ghana is the easiest place to do business. All you have to do is to give the President of Ghana $5 million and the Vice President $3 million. I have the President in my pocket. I see him every day. As for the refs, all you need is to give them GHC20 and girls and they are sorted.”
Despite previous unproven allegations of involvement in match-fixing, Kwesi Nyantakyi is widely respected in Ghana after the successes of the Ghana national team under his tutelage. Aside from leading the Ghanian FA since 2005, he is also the First Vice-President of the Confederation of African Football and a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee.
Nyantakyi, who was in Morocco when the news of the warrant for his arrest broke, reportedly told journalist Paul Adom-Otchere, “I am coming to assist the police in their investigations.”
On Tuesday, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Ghanian president, Samuel Abu Jinapor, claimed that Nyantakyi attempted to use the name of the president and vice president to induce potential investors to part with various sums of money and that, “the president takes a serious view of this and believes it is a case of criminal conduct.”
According to Jinapor: “We want to assure the Ghanaian people that the president is determined to fight corruption, to fight crime, fight influence peddling, fight bribery and instill discipline, integrity and honesty into our public life.”.
Despite opposition claims that he has perfected the art of corruption, President Nana Akufo-Addo cultivates an image of an anti-corruption campaigner. This image has been dented by revelations of his net worth in 2017 of $250 million and his luxury life-style in London where he and his family members own a number of properties in Islington and Regents Park and his ownership of around 200 ‘exotic’ vehicles.
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