Former Ghana Football Association President, Kwesi Nyantakyi on Wednesday was charged with fraud and corruption.
The country’s state prosecutors in court documents charged him with conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud and corruption by a public officer.
Another former football association official who is an associate of Nyantakyi, Abdulai Alhassan was also charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and fraud.
The two were granted bail by the courts to the tune of $183,000 each with three sureties, one to be justified.
Nyantakyi pleaded not guilty to the charges maintaining his innocence.
The former football chief was indicted in an investigative report by Ghanaian undercover journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas in 2008 for accepting bribe.
In the documentary by Tiger Eye PI, which was broadcasted widely, Nyantakyi was seen using the name of Ghana’s President to allegedly peddle falsehood to attain influence.
State prosecutor, Victoria Asiedua told an Accra High Court the two individuals charged executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of a non-existent company claiming to be attracting sponsorship for the Ghana Premier League.
The prosecutors also said the two demanded $12 million from the supposed investors promising to land them major contracts in Ghana.
This money the prosecution says Mr. Nyantakyi said will be distributed as follows; $5 million for the President, $3 million for the Vice President, $2 million for the Roads and Highway’s Minister, $1 million dollars for his Deputy with the rest reserved for the Mr Nyantakyi and Mr Alhassan.
Nyantakyi’s lawyers argued that the inducement to commit a crime is not permissible under the law.
“You cannot induce somebody to commit an offense and turn around to say the person is guilty of that offense”, Charles Pouzing said in defence of his client.
The case has been adjourned to March 25.
Football’s world governing body, FIFA in 2018 banned Kwesi Nyantakyi for life.
The ban covered all football-related activities by FIFA. FIFA said Mr. Nyantakyi violated the governing body’s ethics code, including bribery and corruption.
Mr. Nyantakyi was a former member of FIFA’s General Council.
Source: Africafeeds.com
