A Minister of Youth and Sports under the John Mahama administration, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye has pointed accusing fingers at his fellow politicians in the wake of the Commonwealth games Visa racketeering scandal that has rocked Ghana.
It has been over a week since Australian immigration authorities detected and deported over 50 Ghanaians posing as journalists to gain access to their country.
The global embarrassment the spectacle has brought to the nation prompted President Akufo Addo to summon and suspend Deputy Sports Minister Pius Enam Hadzide and acting Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA),Robert Sarfo Mensah, following preliminary investigations.
President of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) Ben Nunoo Mensah and Board Chairman of the NSA Kojo Baah Agyemang have also been asked to cut short their stay in Australia to assist in investigations.
With the experience of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games under his belt, the former Sports Minister indicated that the decision by politicians to use these competitions to please party members is the genesis of the problem at hand.
This thing happened in 2006 under President Kuffour,it happened again in 2010 under Prof Mills, it happened in 2014 under John Mahama and has happened again in 2018 under Akufo Addo.
The principal actors in these situations has always been the Politician.
If we stop using these occasions as the times to satisfy party apparatchiks and supporters these things will stop.
It does not happen only with sports but also with pilgrimages.
This is the time the politician puts so much pressure on technical people, civil and public servants to influence them to do things that flout the law,” he said on Citi Fm’s current affairs show The Big Issue.
Investigations are still ongoing by the CID as efforts continue to unravel the entire matter.
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By: Benjamin Nketsia/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
