Kufuor Finally Fires Sports Minister

Contrary to Wednesday's press statement that Mallam Yusif Isa, Minister of Youth an Sports had resigned, GNA Sports investigations have revealed that he was actually sacked by the President.

Ms Elisabeth Ohene, Minister of State responsible for press relations told the GNA in a telephone interview that " the earlier press statement saying the minister had resigned was a polite way of saying he's been sacked".

She said the minister had earlier discussed the issue with the president, John Agyekum Kufuor and his Vice Aliu Mahama and he was given various options to choose from, including resignation.

The government spokesperson added that the statement on the Sports minister's resignation was discussed with him before it was released to the press.

Ms Ohene was reacting to a statement made by the minister on radio Universe on Wednesday that he never tendered in any letter of resignation. Mallam Isa's suitcase containing 45,000 dollars meant for the payment of allowances to the Black Stars in their away match against Sudan about three weeks ago was lost in transit and was later discovered without the money.

The GNA Sports gathered that Mallam Isa incurred the wrath of the President and the leadership of the NPP party because he failed to report the loss to the authorities when he returned from Sudan on February 28.

Our source said that the first time the President heard about the scandal was from a publication in The Despatch, an Accra weekly newspaper. The source said the government was so much embarrassed that Mallam Isa was summoned to meet with the President and the Vice President to deliberate extensively on the issue.

The meeting resolved that Mallam Isa should relinquish his post and the Minister responsible for media relations was authorised to write a resignation letter for him.

The letter, our source said, was read to Mallam Isa and he accepted the contents before it was sent to media houses for publication "The refutal of the resignation notice by the Sports Minister is therefore a surprise and indeed a shock to me", our source said.

Mallam Isa later told Choice FM that he never agreed to the letter drafted by Ms Ohene saying while the issue was being discussed she went ahead to fax the statement to the media houses.

Mallam Issa, a Vice-Chairman of the Peoples National Convention (PNC) assumed duty as Sports minister on February 12.