Ghana nearly suffered an embarrassing moment in the annals of the country's football history when another stadium flood light fiasco occured at the nation's "Wembley", the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium.
Peacefmonline.com can confirm that the much publicized Jones Attuquayefio Charity Match was nearly curtailed when the flood lights went off, albeit for a few minutes; bringing memories of a similar fiasco at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium during a World Cup Qualifier between the Black Stars of Ghana and Lesotho.
Except this time, two of the four sets of floodlights at the stadium went off for a little over five minutes and came back on by itself.
And even when power was restored, visibility was still poor since not all the bulbs on two of the four sets of floodlights mounted at each end of the field came back on.
The match featured Friends of Jones Attuquayefio XI against the Black Stars.
According to Abeiku Kingsley of PeaceFM Sports Desk, at the time of the flood light malfunction, Jones Attuquayefio XI, which included members of the famed ‘64 Battalion’ regiment of Accra Hearts of Oak were leading the Black Stars by 2-1.
Interestingly, some football fans present could be held screaming "heads will roll" during the short period the flood lights went off, in apparent reference to the Baba Yara incident.
It would be recalled that following a system failure and malfunctioning of flood lights in Kumasi, which led to the suspension of a World Cup qualifier between the Black Stars and the Crocodiles of Lesotho for nearly an hour and a half, Communications Director at the presidency, Koku Anyidoho, told the media that the Ashanti Regional boss of the ECG, Alhaji Abdulai Kurah, had been fired with immediate effect upon President Mills’ instructions.
But barely 24 hours after his declaration, the Information Ministry on behalf of government, issued a press release to deny the statement that Alhaji Abdulai Kurah had been dismissed.
A rueful Koku Anyidoho, in a quick volte-face later said the supposed suspension of the Ashanti ECG boss was made not on the instructions of President Mills. According to him, some key persons in government took the decision and he communicated it.
A five-man committee was then set up to thoroughly investigate the circumstances leading to the blackout, and to also make the necessary recommendations to forestall any future occurrence.
And even before implementation of the committee's recommendations, another "minor" glitch has occured.
For now, it remains to be seen what action those at the helm of affairs at the Sports Ministry will take to avert the re-occurrence of these embarrassing situations.
Meanwhile, the charity match ended 3-3.
Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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