Former President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi who has tried many times to defend and save himself from the bribery and corruption albatross after the Anas #12 exposé is making what people described as ‘stinky’ defense statements.
In his latest press Statement, an eight-page statement, Mr Nyantakyi explained that he was only given $40,000 which was not a bribe, but a refund for his air travel and accommodation.
He said the audio that painted a different picture in the story was created to present a false impression stating that “It is completely false that I received $65,000 from a person claiming to be a member of the Qatari Royal Family. It also completely false that at the time the money was handed to me I was informed “that the money was for shopping” In the context of above, it is therefore false that I was handed a “large gift.”
“I was handed the sum of $40,000 only in eight bundles of $50 banknotes but not $65,000 which both the Sheikh’s agent and I understood to be reimbursement for the travel costs incurred by me, at the Sheikh’s request. It is very easy to confirm how much was given to me from the videotapes. The money was exposed before I was tricked to put in the bag personally.”
However his position on this to many people is the most preposterous of all the issues raised in the statement.
Kwesi Nyantakyi in that statement claimed he spent $61,000 on his trips and expenses but failed to state how much Tiger Eye team spent on the entire production.
It was revealed that Tiger Eye paid for the hotels and the cars used for airport pick-ups which for which reason the team was able to plant the secret cameras and other gadgets.
For the flight, hotel expenditures, logistics, feeding cost and other exigencies that obviously was borne by the Tiger Eye crew not only in Dubai, Qatar or Morocco but for the entire year or two they used to conduct the investigation, it is interesting to note that the $65,000 that was paid to Kwesi Nyantakyi.
In Nyantakyi’s statement he made people belive that Tiger Eye blind step the BBC which is a reputable media organization and collected a paltry $150k bribe to botch the screening which is an integral part of the investigation.
Kwesi Nyantakyi has currently lost his standing, and all positions in local and international football after Anas Aremeyaw screened his latest exposé, dubbed #Number12 which captured him [Nyantakyi] detailing how he was going to personally benefit from a supposed $15 million sponsorship money for Ghana’s league.
Nyantakyi, also detailed to the supposed investor, how he [the investor] could be given several government contracts if he pays bribes to some key government officials such as Ghana’s President and the Vice President.
Although Kwesi Nyantakyi is serving a 90-day ban from FIFA, Anas wants him banned for life for the misconduct.
The former GFA President indicted himself the more making people believe he has nothing to say to the evidences produced against him as questions as to whether he informed the GFA when the “Sheikh” contacted him to sponsor the local league, was the GFA aware of his trip to meet the “Sheikh”, whether official trips for GFA funded from his private pocket, and whether the FA president expected to receive or receive re-imbursement for expenses incurred to meet potential investors from these same investors.
It has also become necessary for him to tell the whole world if it is right, ethical and a proper practice for him as the GFA President to receive over the counter payments for expenses covered without receipts or documentation.
It is also unclear from his statement as to why he allowed the sponsorship money be channeled through his Savings & Loans Company instead of the GFA Bank Account.
