The Chief Executive Officer of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Kojo Bonsu has described former Sports Minister under the Kufuor administration, Mallam Ali Yusif Issah as a dishonest person.
According to him, Mallam Issah who was then a member of the People’s National Convention (PNC) but was co-opted into the NPP administration, is one man who cannot be trusted.
The former Sports Minister received a four year jail term in 2001 for failing to account for $46,000 meant as winning bonus for the senior national soccer team, the Black Stars, who were then on a national assignment in Sudan.
He was however granted a presidential pardon in July 2003 due to poor health.
Mallam Issah has always maintained his innocence, insisting he was framed by persons within the Kufuor administration with the connivance of the then President.
He insists he was used as a sacrificial lamb by the NPP, who wanted to be seen to be fulfilling a pledge to fight corruption. President Kufuor pushed for his prosecution mainly because he was not a member of his party, he maintains.
He once upon a time dared ex President to meet him at a shrine so they both invoke the gods to adjudicate in the matter to prove his innocence therefore.
Mallam Issah
But speaking to Bola Ray on Starr Chat, Kojo Bonsu who is a seasoned sports administrator and at the time traveled with Mallam Issah as the Country rep for sports kit giant Adidas stated that the latter was never consistent in his comments while on the trip.
“We were with the late Ashanti Regional Minister Lawyer Owusu Ansah in Sudan, we went through Germany, through Egypt to Sudan and the man never complained that he had any money on him. So when we landed, Mr Owusu Ansah asked, Kojo, did you people bring the bonus, and I asked him to ask the minister. We went to the hotel and we asked him for the money he told us that he’d left the money on his wife’s table.
“Every minute he’ll change the story he was saying. The man was not telling us the truth, one minute he says it’s in his suit case, another he says something else and so it was becoming a problem. We called the wife and she said there was nothing on the table, we later found money for the players. Immediately after we came to Ghana, I heard the issue on the radio and so I called him and told him about it and he said he was going to the president to inform him. I told him to tell them the truth otherwise he will be sacked.”
Kojo Bonsu noted that he doesn’t believe it was a trap to get Mallam Issah out of the Kufour government as he (Mallam) claims.
“I don’t think it was a plan, he had the money and so he knows better than anybody.”
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