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Bribery and Corruption: Fifa arrests; chance to investigate GFA - Koku Anyidoho

By Allsports.com.gh
Sports News Bribery and Corruption: Fifa arrests; chance to investigate GFA - Koku Anyidoho
MAY 28, 2015 LISTEN

Deputy General Secretary of Ghana's ruling party—the NDC, Koku Anyidoho, has vented that the atmosphere looks right for the government to "take the veil off" the controversial co-efficient payments and barefaced corruption that has ensnared Ghana Football Association under Kwesi Nyantakyi's administration.

The outspoken NDC executive says the arrest of senior FIFA officials on corruption charges on Wednesday morning should fire up the Ghana government into embarking on thorough investigations into suspicious activities of the Ghana Football Association over the years.

Koku, who was a former aide to late Ghana President John Atta Mills, was fingered as one of the leading political figures who championed the much-publicized EOCO raid of the Ghana Football Association secretariat in December 2011, and claims the ground is now fertile for government to crack the whip on corrupt football chiefs.

In an exclusive interview with Accra-based Atinka FM, Koku Anyidoho indicated that it is time for the lid to be taken off Kwesi Nyantakyi's bizarre co-efficient money.

"We have all seen what is happening at FIFA, the headquarters of World Football but we also have been here for Nyantakyi to sit on public TV speaking about co-efficient of two and Saani Daara is also going round barking FIFA will do this FIFA will do that so FIFA was made to look like a lion but now that the lion itself has been arrested, where do their fate lie," Koku Anyidoho told Atinka FM.

"It just tells us the whole world is now getting sick and tired of this whole group of people. Issha Hayatou assembles his people and changes the CAF rules and wants to become CAF president for life and his agents also all over also coming back to their countries and want to become president for life so the whole thing has become a mafia".

"If today the FBI, has broken the FIFA headquarters in Zurich and has picked up officials for questioning, I believe that it is the beginning of the cleansing of the football game.We have to take the bull by the horn",

The world governing body of football, Fifa, is facing an unprecedented crisis on the eve of its congress in Zurich after Swiss authorities arrested a string of officials on corruption charges and opened criminal proceedings over the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

More than a dozen plainclothed officers descended on the five-star Baur au Lac hotel on Wednesday, where officials had gathered for Fifa's annual meeting.

And Koku Anyidoho says now that FIFA top guns have been stripped naked, the Ghana Football Association must brace up for government investigations and possible indictment.

"We've had enougjh of a few people telling us all kind of stories and immediately you want to crack the whip, they say FIFA",

"Now their bosses in Zurich are being investigated by the FBI, they should sit down here in Ghana and now tell us again we cannot ask them question.We are tired".

"It is about time we strip them naked and start questioning them because the amount of money we spend on football is so huge"

"From GNP, Guinness, and hosting of tournaments and when they come back and you ask them, they say co-efficient; what kind of co-efficient, is it thievery?" He quizzed.

"Me I support the calls, this is the time, let us investigate the GFA thoroughly, I don't care about where they take us to, Nyantakyi and co its about time that we take the lid off their activities because enough is enough".

Ghana's 2-14 World Cup campaign was rocked by a massive financial scandal forcing the president to institute a commission of inquiry and the report of the commission is yet to be made public.

Credit: ghanasportsonline

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