The Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo has indicated that her outfit will present the case involving former president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi before court in about two weeks’ time.
She made this known in her answer before Parliament following a question posed her by the Mion constituency Member of Parliament, Mohammed Abdul-Aziz, demanding a status update on the case which gained national prominence early last year.
Gloria Akuffo in her response in Parliament on Thursday blamed the death of the principal witness, Ahmed Husein Suale, for the delay in prosecution.
Ahmed Husein Suale, was a Member of Tiger Eye investigative group which produced the video on the GFA exposé.
“Unfortunately, Mohammed Suale, a member of Tiger Eye and a principal witness with whom the prosecutors directly engaged in the preparation of the case was tragically killed on May 16, 2019. The death of the journalist unavoidably stalled the preparation of the case,” she noted.
She however, added that prosecution is imminent.
“The review of the docket has since been completed and the presentation of the case in court is imminent. Give and take a week or a fortnight, the matter may be presented [to court] but I need to say that the filing is within our control but the fixing and actual presentation is in the control of the court,” she added.
President Nana Akufo-Addo in May 2018 asked the Police to investigate Kwesi Nyantakyi for a possible crime of fraud.
This was after President Nana Akufo-Addo reportedly watched aspects of Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ documentary that exposed corruption in football administration in Ghana and other African countries.
A Deputy Chief of Staff, Samuel Abu Jinapor, said that the President was unhappy that Mr. Nyantakyi had used his name fraudulently in the exposé.
In the video, the then GFA boss was seen using the President’s name, that of the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and other senior government officials, to illegally request for various sums of money from investigators disguised as investors.
Mr. Jinapor at the time said the President, after consultations and having satisfied himself that there was a basis for establishing and launching investigation into the conduct of the GFA president, directed the CID to investigate the matter.
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) as part of its investigations, seized mobile phones and laptops of the embattled football administrator as he was formally charged with defrauding by false pretence.
But more than a year down the line, not much has been seen about the case.
CNR
