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Sports News of Wednesday, 29 August 2018

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

GOC suspends internal investigation into Australia visa scandal

Former Deputy Sports Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide Former Deputy Sports Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide

The Ghana Olympic Committee has suspended internal investigation into the Australia visa scandal which rocked the country few months ago.

The decision to shelve the enquiry into the fiasco is borne out of an investigation into the tittle-tattle by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service which cleared former deputy sports minister Pius Enam Hadzide and NSA Boss Kwadwo Baah Agyeman of any wrongdoing.

Hadzide was suspended for his alleged role in the suspected Commonwealth Games visa racketeering scandal but was reinstated by President Nana Akufo Addo last month after he was exonerated following a report by the police.

However, in the midst of the storm, the Ghana Olympic Committee set-up a three-man committee chaired by Supreme Court Judge, Justice Amadu Tanko to undertake an internal audit into the activities of staff of the organisation despite the clearance by the criminal investigation department of the Ghana Police Service.

But Ghanaweb sources say the internal investigation has been put on hold pending the full report from the CID after the government cleared all officials of any wrongdoing.

It appears the GOC does not want to be in conflict with the government and the findings by the CID, thereby suspending sitting until further notice.

Some Ghanaians traveling into Australia during the Commonwealth games were flagged and subsequently deported from Australia after they were unable to produce concrete evidence to back their claim.



Top government officials were asked to step aside for the role they played as members of the International Games Commission, a sub body set aside to co-ordinate all Ghana’s activities during the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

The case was referred to the National Security for investigations and subsequently led to the suspension of the deputy information minister-designate, NSA Director-General Robert Sarfo-Mensah and NSA Board Chairman Kwadwo Baah-Agyemang.



The source say the Ghana Olympic Committee is working hard to redeem its image and regain confidence in Ghanaians and corporate Ghana thus the attention on the just ended Africa Youth Games in Algeria and the upcoming World Youth Games scheduled for Agentina in October.