GFA dismisses bribery case against Sannie Daara over ‘insufficient evidence’

The Ethics Committee of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has dismissed claims of bribery and corruption against the former Communications Director of the FA, Ibrahim Sannie Daara.

Sannie Daara was indicted, along with a number of top officials of the GFA at the time, including then President of the Association, Kwesi Nyantakyi, in journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ investigative piece on corruption in Ghana football titled ‘Number 12’.

According to the GFA’s statement, the Ethics Committee found that there was “insufficient evidence to support the allegation of acts of bribery and corruption on the part of Mr. Ibrahim Sannie Daara.”

The Ethics Committee began its probe into the allegations of “ethical breaches” brought against Mr Sannie Daara after the documentary first aired in June 2018.

Several people were interviewed by the Committee on the issue, except one Joshua Acquah, who despite being pointed out as a “key witness” by the Committee, “was not traceable since the airing of the Number 12 documentary”.

After assessing the video footage provided by the TigerEye team, the Committee determined that Mr. Sannie Daara did indeed meet with two persons, the AWOL Joshua Acquah and another person called 'Alhassan' said to be the agent of Thomas Abbey.

Despite proddings from the pair to Mr. Sannie Daara to help Thomas Abbey get a call-up to Ghana’s CHAN squad, the former GFA Comms head only urged the player’s representatives to ensure he works hard in order to earn a selection.

The Committee also found from both the edited and unedited videos that Mr Sannie Daara declined an envelope he was offered.

While the voice-over in the documentary claimed that Mr. Sannie Daara asked that the envelope be given to his acquaintance instead, the Committee found no evidence that this was the case.

“The Committee assessed the evidence presented in the two videos, alongside the transcript, by viewing, listening and discerning the points of variation to discount or validate the assertion made by the voice-over,” the report said.

“Further, it endeavoured to obtain critical testamentary information from the witnesses, as well as from the GFA, and took steps to assess, analyze and consider this information against the charges preferred against Mr. Daara. Taking all above into account, the Ethics Committee concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation of acts of bribery and corruption on the part of Mr Ibrahim Sannie Daara.”

The members of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee were Ms. Phyllis M. Christian (Esq.), Dr. Charles Takyi and Mrs. Linda Ofori-Kwafo.

Dr. Isaac Annan (Esq.) and Mr. Wilfred Neneh Addico were the members of the Investigatory Chamber

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