Ghana Athletics: Owusu stands by ‘visa racketeering comments’

, Lutterodt Threatens to Sue

“It happened under his watch and as guardian of the GAA he must be held responsible at some level. Lutterodt was a very detached chairman. Even simple team selection, he did not know how to do it. Have you heard of such a thing happening in the last four years?”

With the words above, Commonwealth medalist and national triple jump record holder, Andrew Owusu, unloaded on former Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) boss Dr. George Lutterodt.

After months of Lutterodt claiming Ghana Athletics has collapsed despite mounting evidence to the contrary, it looks like Owusu, a national athlete during George Lutterodt’s tenure, has come out swinging.

On Radio Gold last Saturday, Owusu questioned Dr. Lutterodt’s credibility and performance as a past chairman while reminding listeners that the most significant scandal in the history of Ghana Athletics occurred under Lutterodt’s watch. That may explain why even during the same government, he was replaced by another chairman, when Sandy Osei-Agyeman was subsequently appointed.

“There was a huge visa racketeering scandal at the GAA. I think people have forgotten. It’s not an allegation. I actually personally suffered under that,” he told Accra based Radio Gold in an interview on Saturday 25th October.

He added, “In 2001, I qualified for the World Championship. I was in graduate school at the time. I called GAA to find out what was going on. Mr. Lutterodt and the GAA told me I had to jump the standard again. I said oh! Why did you guys not to tell me earlier that I need to jump the standard again?

“I ended up jumping the standard again. You know what they told me after jumping the standard again? They told me sorry we have decided not to take you. And then we found out later that my ticket had already been sold off to a bidder,” Andrew Owusu insisted.

However, George Lutterodt, who was appointed, not elected, as GAA chairman between 2001 and 2005, called into the show and threatened to “sue the hell out“of Andrew Owusu, demanding a retraction and apology within 24 hours.
“Andrew Owusu has made a serious defamatory statement against me. Character assassination. I’m going to give him 24 hours to retract it or else I’m going to sue the hell out of him. What he said is a lie and he knows it.
“I was the one who exposed what was going on. It was reported to the then Minister Paul and to the Chief Executive.

“The two people who were involved-I’m not going to mention names- were virtually given a slap on the wrists after their investigation. I even complained to the minister that I thought they were going to give more serious punishments to these people and he said this was all they were going to do.”
Asked to apologise following Mr. Lutterodt’s threat to sue, Owusu brushed off the demand and repeated that the “Visa Scandal” happened under Lutterodt’s watch.

“Mr. Lutterodt is not going to get an apology from me. I have known Mr. Lutterodt for a very long time and he threatened to sue me even when I was competing.”

“The problem is he does not listen. What I said is, this visa racketeering, which actually demoralizes athletes, happened under his watch. So if he wants to go ahead and sue me because I have said it happened under his watch, sure he can go ahead.”

“Second, he is claiming that he was the one who unearthed this! I came to provide the evidence. Yes, at some point he was asked to come in and testify. But my point is, that should tell Ghanaians how detached he was when he was chairman. As usual, I have done quite well in terms of keeping records of communication. If he wants to go ahead and sue, he can sue.”

Despite the revelations that came up after the investigations and the subsequent indictment of some top officers of the GAA, the irony is that the following year, Dr. George Lutterodt continued to work and travel with the same implicated officials, leading to additional confrontations with athletes over faulty selection processes in subsequent years. Lutterodt’s reign came to an end in 2005 when he was removed and replaced by Mr. Sandy Osei-Agyeman, although the NPP government that appointed him still held the reins of government.

There seems to be no love lost between George Lutterodt and the current national triple jump record holder 11 years after the infamous “GAA Visa Racketeering Scandal.” Other commentators on the show suggested that the national security authorities needed to pursue these allegations since the whistle had now been blown, because this visa racketeering business has long been a serious canker in Ghana sports, now that that there was overt evidence It should be pursued.

Clearly, both Owusu and Lutterodt agreed that visa racketeering took place, and Dr. Lutterodt actually claimed that he blew the whistle, so he should have evidence to provide any security agency that investigates it.
But, why he was unwilling to name the people involved was strange, especially since he claimed he had already reported them to authorities when the crime occurred.

Below is a list of accomplishment by the Prof. Francis Dodoo led Ghana Athletics Association since assuming office in 2009:

• $1,800,000 of Independently verified input (direct and in-direct) into athletics development
o Sponsorship (competitions, development fund, and programs)
o Scholarships - $800,000
• 12 National Records in 2010 – 2014 (seniors and juniors); more national records in the past 4 yrs years than in the 15 years prior.
1. Javelin – John Ampomah [2012, 2013, 2014]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/ghana/john-ampomah-275101
2. 200m (indoor) – Janet Amponsah [2014]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/ghana/janet-amponsah-248873
3. Decathlon – Atsu Nyamadi [2014]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/ghana/atsu-nyamadi-258737
4. Discus – Julia Agawu [2013]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/ghana/julia-agawu-282071
5. Triple Jump (indoor) – Mathilde Boateng [2014]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/ghana/mathilde-boateng-242671
6. Triple Jump (outdoor) – Nadia Eke [2014]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/ghana/nadia-eke-273535
7. 800m (YOUTH) – Martha Bissah [2014]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/ghana/martha-bissah-291895
8. Pole Vault – Jordan Yamoah [2013]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/ghana/jordan-yamoah-274670
9. Shot put – Kawabena Keene [2012]
? http://www.all-athletics.com/node/322456
10. Discus – Kawabena Keene [2010]
? http://www.all-athletics.com/node/322456
11. 110MH – Keith Nkrumah [2013]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.all-athletics.com/node/321412
12. Hammer Throw (women) – Linda Benin [2012]
? IAAF Profile - http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/ghana/linda-benin-239571

• More athletes ranked in the top 20 in Africa this year [2014] than in any of the preceding 15 years.
• Second-most medals ever at an African Championships by the youngest team (average age) ever presented by Ghana; 12 medalists came home from the African Championships that occurred quietly one week after the Commonwealth Games ended, with medals in 6 events (individual and relays), and there were FOUR 4th place finishes to boot. Medalists: 8 relay runners, 2 multi-event athletes, one javelin thrower, and one triple jumper)
o 6th Place finish based on points. Every single team that finish ahead of Ghana on points had team much larger than that of Ghana.
• 15 athletes have received scholarships to continue their education and training in the United States in the last two years; more athletes on scholarship in 2 years than in the previous 20 years combined at an estimated worth of over $800,000 in 4 years.
o 8 scholarship offers secured for 2015 (pending athletes passing WASSCE exam)
• Total of 20 juniors qualified for the World Junior Championships in 2012 and 2014; prior to 2012, we had never qualified more than one per gender per year.
• Home-based athletes performing at levels not seen in the past 15 years (Martha Bissah [our first-ever Olympic Gold medalist at the Youth Olympics; Solomon Afful at 20.85 secs ELECTRONIC, the fastest ever 200m race by a home-based Ghanaian; John O’Brien 46.91 secs, 400m; Vivian Mills 53.04 secs, 400m; thirteen 400m men running at 47.99 secs or faster; thirteen 200m women at 24 seconds and below, and the list goes on].
o 11 of of the 25 athletes on the 2014 commonwealth games team were home-based; another 8 left Ghana only in 2013 or 2014.
• Open and transparent selection process. Gone are the days when coaches and administrators would huddle in dark rooms picking favorite athletes and others from whom they could get “favors”. Since 2010, at the start of each year, GAA publishes a publicly available “Selection Policy and Qualifications Standards” document which ensures that for individual events, ONLY athletes can select themselves onto a national team by meeting qualification standards.
• National Championships at the multiple levels; Youth (Cowbell-sponsored), Juniors (Tsakos-sponsored), Senior (multiple sponsors).
• A domestic athletics circuit, which combined with an Open tour produced 8 competitions for Ghana-based athletes in 2014.
o Domestic circuit took athletes to 4 regions, and promises another 5 regions in 2015, breaking the monotony of Accra/Kumasi competitions
• Competitions not just in Accra and Kumasi, but also in Wa, Tamale, Takoradi, Koforidua, with plans to extend to Bolgatanga, Ho, and other places in 2015.
• First ever, international permit (CAA/IAAF) competition in Ghana
• Two successful world-class Grand Prix competitions, which brought athletes from at least a dozen different countries, including Jamaica, USA, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, France, etc.
• On-going grassroots Kid’s Athletics (IAAF/Nestle) program
o Over 500 Kid Athletics coaches will be trained by 2016
o Over 200,000 school children will be reached by 2016
• Purchase of over $100,000 of electronic timing equipment giving Ghana the ability to host international championships events.
• Most ever number of athletes qualified (individual events) to represent Africa at the Youth Olympics (2 in 2014), World Junior Championships (12 in 2012 and 8 in 2014) and the IAAF Continental Cup (3 in 2014) (Formerly World Cup in Athletics)
• 6 National Training Camps in past 3 years: 2011 (Finland), 2012 (Accra & London), 2013 (Accra), 2014 (Accra and Scotland)
• Within Country (Ghana) Training Courses for Officials
o Officiating course (2011)
o IAAF Level 1 coaching course (Dec 2014)