Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Dame has explained why the government failed in its attempt to prosecute former GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi.
According to the Deputy Attorney General, the existing laws governing football and sports in the country make it impossible for officials who are found to have engaged in corrupts acts to be tried at the law courts.
Godfred Odame who is a member of a 4-man taskforce set up by FIFA to assist the Normalization Committee in the restructuring of Ghana football intimated that the law on corruption gives room for only public officials to be arraigned before court for financial mismanagement and corruption.
To avert a reoccurrence of the incidence, Godfred Dame stated that the government will initiate moves to make it legally permissible for sports officials to be tried by statuses of the GFA as well as the laws governing the country.He said that the government will amend the Sports Act to allow for sports officials to be tried at the court.
“We have recognized that there is an urgent need for us to amend the domestic laws of Ghana so far as punishment of infractions in the sporting arena is concerned. If you look at the Anas video there were various instances of people who took money and had their conducts influenced one way the other.
This conduct is recognized by the FA and there is punishment prescribed. But that punishment is not enough to serve as a deterrent”.
“If a person offers money to a football referee to influence the outcome of a match, it is described as bribery but such bribery is not recognized by the domestic laws of Ghana. I say so because bribery and corruption only apply to public officers. Most of the officers engaged in football are private persons”.
''The referees are private persons, most of the officials of the GFA may not be public officers. In fact the president of the GFA was actually in the private sector and so if there is such conduct clearly it does not fall within the prescription of bribery and corruption”. In the wake Anas’ Number 12 documentary, the government initiated moves to apprehend the football officials who were caught on tape engaging in various act of corruptions. Then GFA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi was arrested by the Ghana Police Service following an order by President Akufo-Addo. Nyantakyi was charged with fraud and asked to return to the CID office for further grilling.
The secretariat of the association was closed down and labelled a crime scene to allow for CID officials to conduct their investigations. However almost a year after the expose, the CID has failed to brief the public on the findings of their investigations.