Injunction Filed On FA Election

MR. Y. A. Ibrahim, one of the losing candidates in the GFA presidential election, has distanced himself from the court action supposedly intended to place an injunction on the whole election.

Mr. Ibrahim, who was chairman of the defunct Executive Council of the GFA, said he did not share in the idea of carrying football matters into the law courts.

In a post-election interview with The Chronicle, he said he did not consider the court action an appropriate course for redress, although he believed the three had good grounds for their argument.

"It was a genuine concern though, because we were going for election and we didn't know who and who were coming to vote," he said.

Yet, the former executive council chairman disagreed with the resort to court, saying, "We know the FIFA statutes and what they say about going to court. We need to move forward, so why the need for a court action?" he asked.

But in spite of the defeat, Mr. Ibrahim displayed maturity and sportsmanship, as he congratulated Mr. Nyantakyi and declared his support for the new GFA president.

He pledged his support for the new system, promising to bring his experience to bear on policies and any relevant areas his services would be required.

"I will consider any role I am offered to play," he stated.

For Mr. Vincent Sowah Odotei, the experience of just participating in the election was worth it, notwithstanding the fact that he and Joseph Kobina Ade Coker received no votes.

"I promise I will be back," he declared after the extraordinary congress.

Then acting as Chairman of the GFA, Kwesi Nyantakyi won the election after polling 91 of the 123 votes representing 74%, while his closest challenger, Ibrahim, polled just 25 votes representing 20%.

The 3 other candidates who lost in the polls -Kojo Bonsu, Joseph Kobina Ade Coker and Vincent Sowah Odotei- brought a legal action against the election process at the last minute, wanting to, at least, delay the exercise beyond the December 30 date.

In their opinion, the electoral process worked against them since they had no knowledge of the electoral register.

The effort however failed, as they were unable to file the writ on time and serve the relevant persons appropriately.

Indeed, just a week before the election, Mr. Ibrahim joined the other three candidates to request for the register of delegates to the congress, insisting they needed it to keep their respective campaigns focused.

"We used the internal mechanism to appeal. For example, as soon as we wrote they responded to it," Ibrahim admitted.