The Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA), Mohammed Amin Lamptey, has openly criticised the Minister for Sports and Recreation, Kofi Adams, accusing him of refusing to cooperate with GBA President Abraham Neequaye.
His comments come in the wake of the repatriation of Nigerian boxer Gabriel Oluwasegun, a task the GBA says it carried out independently without any assistance from the Ministry.
In an exclusive interview with Channel One Sports, Amin Lamptey disclosed that tensions are growing between the Sports Minister and the GBA President; tensions he believes could hamper the development of sports in Ghana.
He just came into office. We were working with so many ministers before he came. He came into office, I think he close to five months.
We have nothing, have no bone to pick with him. It is he who has publicly said that he cannot work with Abraham Neequayee, the GBA president. I don’t understand that, You are just a minister and he’s part of the sporting discipline. Ghana Boxing Authority produced close to 10 world champions to Ghana, that we are all know.
Amin Lamptey also lamented the lack of government support for boxing in the country.
There is no budget coming from government to the Ghana Boxing Authority, everything is borne by the Ghana Boxing Authority so he came and so when he said he cannot work with us , we don’t understand that .
Why would you set a committee without even collaborating with the GBA? We have no idea about the committee, When the committee was launched, GBA was not in process.
When he inaugurated them, we were not there. When he received the report, we were not there. Now the report that even came out
Majority of those who appeared before the committee are saying that most of the things captured in the report, they were misquoted. So how would you really certify this particular report?
He concluded by rejecting the notion that the GBA is at loggerheads with the Ministry, suggesting instead that the tension is one-sided.
So we are not a loggerheads with the ministry. It is the ministry that I was trying to create some kind of situation of loggerhead between its office and the Ghana Boxing Authority.
Despite the challenges, the Ghana Boxing Authority remains committed to holding its scheduled elections, in line with its constitutional mandate.
