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The
Ghanaians said they were journalists due to cover the Commonwealth Games AFP
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Ghana’s sports ministry
has denied it had anything to do with 50 allegedly fake journalists getting
visas for the Commonwealth Games.
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Ghana's Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Pius Enam Hadzide
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Deputy
Minister of Youth and Sports, Pius Enam Hadzide, told news site Graphic
(SEE EMBEDDED STORY) it would be launching a probe - but the visas were
not awarded by his department.
“We
did not sponsor journalists, we didn’t sponsor supporters, we didn’t sponsor
anybody to the Commonwealth Games, we didn’t handle accreditation and for
international tournaments, the ministry doesn’t handle accreditation,” he told
the Ghanaian outlet.
The
denial comes after it was reported about 50 people, claiming to be journalists,
had arrived in Australia, ostensibly to cover the Commonwealth Games.
The
Australian authorities, however, suspected they were not genuine.
Mr
Hadidze told Ghana's StarrFM Online Australian authorities are "not convinced that
some of the Ghanaians who purport to go and cover the commonwealth games intend
to return to Ghana after the games”.
Sports Ministry
Denies Visa Fraud Allegations
Graphic Sports (Ghana) reports that the
Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Pius Enam Hadzide, has denied the
ministry’s alleged involvement in any visa deal for some supposed journalists
for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, and has promised a
full-scale investigation would be launched into the issue.
His
denial comes in the wake of media reports about a visa racketeering scandal
that has linked the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) and the National Sports
Authority (NSA) for allegedly facilitating visas for some 73 individuals and
charging them between GH¢15,000 and GH¢22,000 to help them secure visas to
Australia.
However,
during an interview with the Graphic Sports yesterday, the deputy minister
dismissed those claims and pointed out that his outfit was not involved in any
form of visa acquisition for media personnel, hence those allegations were
baseless.
“We
did not sponsor journalists, we didn’t sponsor supporters, we didn’t sponsor
anybody to the Commonwealth Games, we didn’t handle accreditation and for
international tournaments, the ministry doesn’t handle accreditation,” he
stated.
Although
the website which initially broke the story has retracted and apologized, the
deputy minister said a full-scale probe would be launched into the allegation
to ascertain exactly what happened.
According
to the report, the deputy minister and the NSA boss, Robert Sarfo Mensah, were
part of the contingent in Gold Coast, Australia, but the deputy minister who is
currently in Ghana, said neither he nor the NSA boss were contacted by anybody
to help secure visas for them.
Mr
Hadzide further noted that his outfit had always resorted to the right channel
whenever they had to support journalists to secure visas and wondered where the
allegation was coming from, as they never got involved in visa acquisition for
anybody.
“When
we want to apply for journalists we go through the normal application system
and the ministry will write a letter to the ministry of Foreign Affairs for
cover letter,” he stated.
“Nobody came to us to do visas for them so we didn’t even write any letter for a journalist to travel to Australia,” he stated.
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