One for Essien’s ex-lover

Midfield ace Michael Essien's former lover, Dela Ackumey's calculated attempt to propound stories to discredit the Chelsea and the Black Stars' player has been found out.

According to The Chronicle, Dela's nefarious acts which have dragged the player's name onto many English tabloids in recent times, has threatened the 2008 Champions League finalist's stay in London.

Dela, now domiciled in the United Kingdom (UK), is yet to come to terms with the fact that she has lost her place in the heart of the Chelsea marksman, and has consequently tried in vain to make the player unpopular.

The paper explains that Essien's decision to break up with Dela just before the Germany 2006 World Cup, prompted her to solicit for 'spiritual assistance' from Essien's pastor, Rev. Sam Korankyi Ankrah of Royal House Chapel, and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) as well as her parents, for the player to pay her off.

When the Pastor's efforts to talk to Essien into rescinding his decision yielded no answer, she resorted to a British court to demand compensation for their three-year affair, but the court threw her request out.

Consequently, she decided to whip up public hatred for Essien to exact her revenge in UK newspapers like News of the World, after she failed to get US$l0m compensation from her ex-lover.

The paper says Dela was kicked out of Essien's £1.5 million home in Cobham, Surrey, near Chelsea's training ground when she cut herself with a knife, claiming she was attacked by unknown assailants with unclear motives.

But the frightened Chelsea star wanted to confirm the identity of the alleged assailants so he watched his CCTV camera, which Dela did not know was installed in the mansion.

Essien apparently discovered after watching the tape that she had used the knife on herself and the Chelsea star lost trust in her, which resulted in their split. (The Chronicle said the video footage is doing the rounds in Accra).

Unknown to Essien, before leaving for the UK, Dela had posed as the wife of the star and got Essien's father to endorse documents to support such a claim. Armed with that "evidence", Dela is pursuing her claim for compensation from her "husband".

She told the News of the World in the UK last week that Essien was secretly seeing another Ghanaian, a film star while he was with her. But her friends say their relationship ended before the 2006 World Cup while Essien met the famous actress in 2007 when he travelled with Didier Drogba to Accra to receive the African Player of the Year award.

One of his Black Stars team mates, who want to remain anonymous, confided in The Chronicle that "Michael has not been himself in camp.

“We hope that this lady leaves him alone to concentrate on what he knows how to do best. We all Love Michael and we want to see him come back to himself."

The revelation of her US$l0 million demand has now led many people to conclude that Dela is one of the women who seek well-to-do football stars just to fleece them.

Many Ghanaian players have fallen prey to such self-seeking females in search of wealthy and famous footballers to date for financial gains.

Essien was introduced to Ackumey by her friends in 2003 when she was a ticket assistant at the State Transport Corporation (STC) in Accra.

According to The Chronicle, in her bid to attract sympathy and avoid being referred to as a 'gold digger', Dela told the News of the World that she was unaware of Essien's star status when they met in 2005, in Accra.

However, when her friend Celina, introduced Essien to her in 2005, the midfielder was already wealthy and a household name in Ghana following his impressive outing for French side, Olympic Lyon in the UEFA Champions League and the Black Stars.

About a fortnight ago, Myjoyonline republished an interview granted News of the World by Dela in which she sought to claim that Essien was a cheat who cheated on her several times while they were together.

Credit: The Chronicle