The suspended Deputy Sports Minister Pius Enam Hadzide has stated that he played no role in the circumstances that led to some 60 Ghanaians posing as journalists ended up in Australia for the Commonwealth Games.
Mr. Hadzide and the acting Director General of the National Sports Authority, Robert Sarfo Mensah have been suspended by President Akufo-Addo with immediate effect.
The action by the President comes some few days after some 60 Ghanaians who were in Australia for the commonwealth games were detained and deported for acting as journalists.
According to Australian authorities, they were not convinced by the reasons given by those so-called journalists for traveling to the country.
Eventhough those deported had genuine visas, many didn’t carry equipment like recorders and recommended mobile phones for coverage.
Moments after his suspension, the Deputy Sports Minister welcomed the decision by the President adding that he knows nothing about the scandal or how the 60 people who faked their identities got visas to Australia for the games.
“After the investigations, they’ll realise that I know nothing about it and I’ll be exonerated,” Mr. Hadzide told Asempa FM’s Ekosii sen programme.
Meanwhile, a statement from the Jubilee House stated that the President of the Ghana Olympic Committee, Mr. Ben Nunoo Mensah; the Board Chairman of the National Sports Authority, Hon. Kwadwo Baah Agyeman; and the Chef-de-Maison for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Mr Mohammed Sahnoon, have also been recalled from the Games to assist in investigations currently being undertaken by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police Service.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
